Diiikion     .         J^  —  -^j- 

BS    2415    .M24T909^Tr 
McClelland,    T.    Calvin  1869- 

1917. 
The  mind  of  Christ 


BOOKS  BY  DR.  McClelland 


THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

An   Attempt   to   Answer  the   Question, 
What  Did  Jesus  Believe? 

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A  Study  of  the  Various  People 
Concerned  In  Jesus*  Death. 

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THE    MIND 
CHRIST 


O 


^^ 


oni  6   19c 


AN  ATTEMPT  TO  ANSWER  THE  QUESTION 
WHAT  DID  JESUS  BELIEVE? 


BY 


T.  CALVIN.  McClelland,  d.d. 

MINISTER  OF  THE  MEMORIAL  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF 
BROOKLYN-NEW  YORK 


NEW  YORK 

THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  CO. 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1909 

By  Thomas  Y.  Crowell  &  Co. 

Published  September,  1909 


TO 

James  Cruikshank,  LL.D.  Walter  S.  Finlay 

George  M.  Van  Deventer  James  F.  Atkinson 

Howard  Haviland  Alfred  G.  Reeves 

RULING  elders   IN  THE 

memorial    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH 

BROOKLYN-NEW   YORK 

THIS  BOOK  IS  INSCRIBED  WITH  APPRECIATION 

GRATITUDE  AND  AFFECTION 


PREFACE 

The  following  pages  are  an  attempt  to  inter- 
pret in  plain  speech  the  belief  of  Jesus.  There 
attend  upon  the  worship  of  every  church  numbers 
of  strong,  spiritual  people  who  are  not  confessed 
followers  of  Jesus,  because  they  misunderstand 
Him  and  what  He  stands  for.  Christianity,  as 
they  understand  it,  means  something  unintelligible 
or  unpractical.  The  religion  they  need  is  one 
which  they  can  confess  with  all  their  hearts  not 
only,  but  also  with  all  their  minds.  The  religion 
they  want  is  one  which  will  make  a  vital  difference 
in  their  "  yeses  "  and  ''  noes,"  their  loves  and  hates, 
a  religion  through  which  they  shall  work  right- 
eousness, from  weakness  be  made  strong,  wax 
valiant  in  fight,  turn  to  flight  armies  of  distress 
and  injustice.  For  these  and  for  all  earnest  people 
who  want  to  get  at  the  rock-bottom  facts  of 
Christianity  I  have  ventured  to  make  this  inter- 
pretation of  the  mind  of  Christ. 

Jesus  was  the  first  Christian,  the  kind  of 
Christian  men  want  to  be  and  ought  to  be,  the 
kind  of  Christian  men  can  be  if  only  they  will 
think   His   thoughts,   feel   His   feelings   and   give 

v 


vi  PREFACE 

themselves  up  to  His  master  idea.  This  then,  is 
the  vital  thing  to  know,  What  did  Jesus  believe? 
What  did  God  mean  to  Him?  How  did  He  think 
of  Himself  and  of  His  fellow  men?  These  are 
the  fundamental  questions  of  modern  religion. 

In  what  I  have  written  I  disclaim  all  controver- 
sial intent.  The  thing  farthest  from  my  thought 
is  to  suggest,  or  to  arouse  debate  upon  any  theory 
of  the  Person  of  Christ.  For  myself  none  of  the 
creeds,  nor  all  of  them  put  together  can  adequately 
express  my  adoration  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
But  in  these  chapters  I  would  so  present  Him  that, 
whatever  one's  personal  metaphysic  of  Christ,  he 
may  unite  in  the  "  Song  of  a  Heathen,  sojourning 
in  Galilee,  A.  D.  32," 

"  If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  man, — 
And  only  a  man, —  I  say 
That  of  all  mankind  I  cleave  to  Him, 
And  to  Him  will  I  cleave  alway. 

If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  God, — 

And  the  only  God, —  I  swear 
I  will  follow  Him  through  heaven  and  hell, 

The  earth,  the  sea,  and  the  air." 

I  cannot  forbear  expressing  my  great  gratitude 
to  two  friends  who  among  many  others  gave  me 
suggestions  which  have  been  worked  out  in  these 
essays.  The  one  is  the  beloved  Charles  Cuthbert 
Hall,  who  in  his  beautiful  life  and  death  witnessed 
so  splendidly  to  his  belief  in  the  supreme  Lordship 


PREFACE  vii 

of  Jesus.  The  other  is  the  Rev.  Prof.  George  Wil- 
liam Knox,  D.D.,  whose  monograph  in  **  The 
Christian  Point  of  View  "  gave  me  the  idea  for 
the  eleventh  chapter,  and  whose  "  Direct  and 
Fundamental  Proofs  of  The  Christian  Religion  " 
gave  me  material  for  the  last  essay. 

T.  Calvin  McClelland. 

Memorial  Church  Manse, 
January  25,  1909. 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  Jesus'  Idea  of  God i 

II.  Jesus'  Idea  of  Himself 19 

III.  Jesus*  Idea  of  Man 51 

IV.  Jesus'  Idea  of  Religion 69 

V.  Jesus'  Idea  of  Sin 85 

VI.    Jesus'  Idea  of  Salvation 99 

VII.    Jesus'  Idea  of  Prayer 117 

VIII.    Jesus'  Idea  of  Immortality 133 

IX.  The  Proof  of  Jesus'  Idea  of  God      .     .     .  153 

X.     How  A  Man   May   Know  the  God  and   P^a- 

ther  of  Jesus 167 

XI.    The   Seriousness  of  Believing  in  the  God 

AND  Father  of  Jesus i7q 

XII.    The  Religion  of  Jesus  the  Absolute  Reli- 
gion       193 


IX 


I 

JESUS'  IDEA  OF  GOD 


"Are  not  two  sparrows  sold  for  a  penny?  and  not  one 
of  them  shall  fall  on  the  ground  without  your  Father:  but 
the  very  hairs  of  your  head  are  all  numbered." 

"  What  man  is  there  of  you,  who,  if  his  son  shall  ask 
him  for  a  loaf,  will  give  him  a  stone;  or  if  he  shall  ask  for 
a  fish,  will  give  him  a  serpent?  If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know 
how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  your  children,  how  much  more 
shall  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven  give  good  things  to  them 
that  ask  Him?" 

"Be  not  therefore  anxious,  saying.  What  shall  we  eat? 
or,  What  shall  we  drink?  or,  Wherewithal  shall  we  be 
clothed?  For  after  all  these  things  do  the  Gentiles  seek; 
for  your  heavenly  Father  knoweth  that  ye  have  need  of 
these  things." 

"  Love  your  enemies,  and  pray  for  them  that  persecute 
you ;  that  ye  may  be  sons  of  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven ; 
for  He  maketh  His  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  the  good, 
and  sendeth  rain  on  the  just  and  the  unjust.  Ye  therefore 
shall  be  perfect,  as  your  heavenly  Father  is  perfect." 

"He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father." 

"  Father,  forgive  them ;  for  they  know  not  what  they  do." 


THE  MIND  OF   CHRIST 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  GOD 

The  fact  of  life  is  God.  The  question  of  life 
is,  what  is  God?  Only  the  "  fool  hath  said  in  his 
heart,  There  is  no  God."  Science  believes  in  God ; 
it  gathers  and  sifts  the  facts  of  nature  and  human 
nature  and  says,  "  we  are  ever  in  the  presence  of 
an  Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy  from  which  all 
things  proceed."  Philosophy  believes  in  God;  it 
makes  nations  and  individuals  pass  in  review  be- 
fore its  stand  and  reports  that  there  "  is  a  Power 
not  ourselves,  which  makes  for  righteousness." 
Poetry  believes  in  God;  it  searches  the  hearts  of 
things  and  men  and  sings, 

"The  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  the  seas,  the  hills  and  the 

plains  — 
Are  not  these,  O  Soul,  the  Vision  of  Him  who  reigns  ?  " 

Every  man  believes  in  God.  When  Voltaire 
bought  the  manor  of  Ferney  he  found  the  parish 
church  in  bad  repair.     He  had  it  torn  down,  and 

3 


4  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

in  his  own  park,  at  his  own  expense  he  built  a  new 
church,  and  over  its  door  he  carved,  "  Deo  erexit 
Voltaire."  He,  who  orthodoxy  said  was  the  syn- 
onym for  "  Satan,  Death  and  Sin/'  dedicated  a 
church  to  God.  Every  man  has  some  sacred 
shrine  for  God,  an  unknown  God  maybe,  but  God. 
Every  man  has  some  solitude  which  he  dedicates 
to  God,  not  my  God  maybe,  but  God.  Every  man 
is  conscious  that  he  has  more  relationships  than 
those  he  comes  to  by  birth  and  marriage.  The  soul 
feels  an  *  Over-Soul ',  a  '  Something  There  '  not 
flesh  and  blood,  on  which  he  knows  he  and  his 
destiny  depend.  Experience  certifies  the  Psalmist 
true  when  he  says,  "  Out  of  the  depths  have  I 
cried  unto  thee,  O  God."  This  is  incurable  in 
man,  the  sense  of  a  superhuman.  The  fact  of  all 
facts  is  God ;  the  question  of  all  questions  is,  what 
is  God  ?  for  the  old  saying  "  as  the  man,  so  his 
God,"  is  just  as  true  turned  end  for  end,  as  his 
God,  so  the  man. 

So  the  most  searching  question  we  can  ask  about 
Jesus  is,  what  is  His  idea  of  God?  When  we  get 
Jesus'  idea  of  God,  we  get  His  idea  of  Himself,  of 
man,  of  religion,  of  sin,  of  salvation,  of  life,  of 
prayer,  of  immortality. 

First,  after  the  manner  of  artists,  we  must  get 
in  our  background  that  we  may  have  a  due  sense 
of  proportion  and  perspective  for  the  figure  which 
shall  stand  in  the  foreground.     We  must  get  the 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  GOD  5 

idea  man  had  of  God  before  Jesus  came.  Man's 
earliest  idea  of  God  was,  the  Powerful  One,  the 
Strong,  the  Almighty.  Omnipotence  was  the  first 
quality  discovered  in  deity;  force  got  the  first 
worship.  God  was  a  splendid  despot,  He  was  the 
glorified  sheik  of  the  tribe.  In  some  of  the  earliest 
narratives  of  the  Bible  we  get  glimpses  of  this 
primitive  idea.  In  these  stories  God  shares 
names  with  the  pagan  divinities.  He  is  called 
"  Baal "  and  *'  Elohim,"  names  that  signify  the 
terrible  and  majestic.  The  oldest  specifically  He- 
brew name  for  God  is  "  El,"  which  means  '*  The 
Strong,"  and  this  alternates  with  the  poetic  "  Zur," 
"  The  Rock."  A  favorite  patriarchal  name  was 
"  El  Shaddai,"  which  might  be  translated  "  The 
Irresistible."  Among  primitive  peoples  names 
were  not  mere  tags  to  designate  objects ;  they  were 
word  pictures;  they  told  you  something  about  the 
nature  of  the  things  named.  A  name  for  God  was 
really  a  confession  of  faith,  a  creed  about  Him. 
But,  all  of  these  first  names  for  God  stood  simply 
for  almighty  power,  absolute  sovereignty.  In 
them  the  children  of  Abraham  confessed  their 
faith  in  the  Omnipotent.  They  saw  Him  in  the 
thunderstorm,  the  lightning  and  the  fire;  they 
thought  of  Him  as  their  leader  in  battle;  they 
devoted  to  Him  in  slaughter  their  prisoners  of 
war;  and  they  thought  of  Him  as  claiming  the 
sacrifice  even  of  human  life  as  the  loftiest  expres- 


6  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

sion  of  a  man's  devotion.     I  believe  in  God  as 
Power  was  the  first  creed  of  the  race. 

But  a  better  day  dawned.  The  Omnipotent 
was  seen  to  be  the  Omniscient,  and  the  God  of 
Power  was  beHeved  to  be  the  God  of  a  Plan. 
When  men  made  that  discovery  or  how  no  one 
can  tell;  but  sometime,  the  Bible  seems  to  say  it 
was  in  Moses'  time,  the  Hebrews  got  a  new  name 
for  God,  the  august  name  written  in  our  English 
Scriptures  "  Jehovah."  "  God  spake  unto  Moses 
and  said  unto  him,  I  am  Jehovah :  and  I  appeared 
unto  Abraham,  unto  Isaac,  and  unto  Jacob,  as  El 
Shaddai;  but  by  my  name  Jehovah  I  was  not 
known  to  them.  And  God  said  unto  Moses,  I  Am 
that  I  Am :  and  He  said,  Thus  shalt  thou  say  unto 
the  children  of  Israel,  I  Am  that  I  Am  hath  sent  me 
unto  you."  This  was  the  Hebrew's  greatest  name 
for  God ;  they  cherished  it  so,  that  by  and  by  they 
would  not  speak  it  aloud,  and  in  course  of  time  its 
pronunciation  was  forgotten.  The  meaning  of  the 
word  "  Jehovah "  is  probably  "  He  who  is  and 
causes  to  be,"  or  "  He  who  lives  and  causes  life." 
It  implies  personal  will,  irresistible  and  trust- 
worthy. It  was  a  great  day  when  "  El,"  the 
Strong,  was  found  to  be  ''  Jehovah  "  the  God  with 
the  Purpose.  Worship  of  force,  even  though  it 
were  celestial  force,  brutalizes  character ;  and  faith 
in  a  glorified  tyrant  becomes  apathetic  or  despair- 
ing acquiescence   in   fate.     But  if  the  Almighty 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  GOD  7 

is  also  the  All-knowing,  if  the  Strong  is  also  the 
God  with  the  Plan,  then  His  sovereignt}^  is  not 
whimsical,  and  His  rule  is  not  chance.  Life 
might  still  be  a  mystery,  but  it  is  not  a  chaos; 
there  may  be  a  riddle  of  existence,  but  He  holds 
the  key.  Jehovah  was  to  be  feared,  but  more.  He 
was  to  be  served  with  trembling  hope.  I  believe 
in  God  the  Almighty  Proposer  and  Disposer  was 
the  second  creed  of  the  race. 

Then  great  prophets  came,  and  they  unveiled 
another  great  characteristic  of  deity.  They  said 
the  Almighty  Jehovah  is  holy.  Jehovah  is  the  God 
of  righteousness,  who  requires  of  men  that  they 
not  only  fear  and  serve,  but  with  justice  obey. 
The  All-powerful  and  the  All-purposeful  was  seen 
to  be  the  All-perfect.  Men  like  Hosea,  Isaiah  and 
Micah  discovered  a  conscience  at  the  heart  of  the 
universe,  a  conscience  like  man's  conscience  at  its 
best.  God  was  the  source  of  all  justice,  the  sov- 
ereign adjuster  of  life's  unjust  and  arbitrary  dis- 
tinctions. This  was  the  sublimest  God-faith  of 
Israel.  It  meant  that  the  world  was  steeped  in 
morality;  that  right  is  higher  than  might.  This 
idea  laid  its  masterful  hand  on  the  spring  of  the 
feelings  and  set  men  trying  to  live  a  life  that  like 
Job's  could  see  all  that  he  had  made  and  loved 
swept  away  like  dust  before  a  whirlwind  of  divine 
purpose  and  yet  say,  "  Though  He  slay  me  yet 
will  I  trust  Him."     It  was  a  glorious  day  when 


8  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

Jehovah  was  seen  to  be  just,  and  the  plan  was 
known  to  be  fair.  It  gave  men  the  quiet  feeHng 
that  comes  to  those  who  once  walked  armed  to 
the  teeth,  but  are  now  settled  under  a  government 
where  there  may  be  lawlessness  but  no  anarchy. 
I  believe  in  the  Almighty  Jehovah,  the  Perfect ;  in 
the  God  of  the  Power,  the  God  of  the  Purpose,  the 
White  God,  this  was  the  third  creed  of  the  race. 
It  was  the  best  creed  the  world  ever  had.  It  was 
a  wonderful  idea  of  God;  its  masculine  vigor  and 
ethical  grandeur  reached  down  into  the  deeps  of 
life  and  quickened  amaze,  reverence  and  awe. 
But  at  the  same  time,  this  idea  of  God  swept  up- 
ward like  the  peak  of  Teneriffe,  majestic,  dimly 
outlined,  mist-draped,  inaccessible  from  the  cold 
surge  of  life  which  washed  restlessly  about  its 
base. 

This  was  the  creed  Jesus  learned  at  His  mother*s 
knee.  For  Jesus,  God  was  real  and  living.  He 
did  not  argue  that  God  is.  He  ignored  atheism; 
indeed  it  seems  as  if  He  took  it  for  granted  that 
all  men  believed  that  God  is.  He  accepted  the 
ancient  creed.  He  contradicted  no  one  of  its 
sublime  conceptions.  He  confessed  "  the  God  of 
Abraham  and  of  Isaac  and  of  Jacob."  His  God 
was  sovereign,  all-wise  and  just.  The  mountain 
peak  stood  in  the  landscape  of  His  belief,  but  He 
lifted  upon  it  the  light  of  a  bright  new  day,  and 
before  that  genial  ray,  the  once  mist-draped,  in- 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  GOD  9 

accessible  peak  rose  clear  and  winsome,  an  upward 
slope,  but  a  gentle  slope,  from  whose  base  to  sum- 
mit ran  a  climbing  path  with  many  a  rest-house 
for  the  weary  and  heavy  laden.  God  is  all-power- 
ful, all-wise  and  all-perfect,  said  the  ancients. 
God  is  our  Father,  said  Jesus,  and  power,  wisdom 
and  perfectness  are  the  attributes,  the  tools  with 
which  the  Father  works.  Fatherhood  is  the  mind 
and  heart,  the  attributes  are  the  hands  and  feet. 
Fatherhood  was  the  idea  in  which,  for  which  and 
by  which  Jesus  lived. 

It  was  not  that  Jesus  made  the  name  "  Father  '* 
brand  new.  Other  men  had  used  the  term. 
Homer  called  Zeus  the  father  of  gods  and  men. 
The  Cilician  poet,  Aratus,  quoted  by  St.  Paul, 
wrote, 

'*  With  Zeus  are  filled  all  paths  we  tread  and  all  the  marts 

of  men; 
Filled,  too,  the  sea  and  every  creek  and  bay; 
And  all,  in  all  things,  need  we  help  of  Zeus; 
For  we  too  are  His  offspring." 

Plato  and  Seneca  used  the  word  "  father,''  and 
with  the  Jews  the  metaphor  was  classic.  Moses 
employed  it,  and  Hosea,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  the 
Psalmist  and  the  unknown  prophet  of  the  exile. 
Sometimes  the  name  refers  to  God  as  the  supreme 
ruler,  sustaining  toward  Israel  the  same  relation 
that  a  father  sustained  toward  a  Jewish  family, 
that  is,  the  head  of  the  house.     Sometimes  the 


10  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

name  goes  deeper  and  describes  God's  mystic  fel- 
lowship with  His  people.  Sometimes,  as  in  the 
apocryphal  books,  it  is  used  to  express  God's 
kindly  attitude  toward  the  pious  individual.  At 
the  time  of  Jesus  the  words  "  Heavenly  Father," 
and  "  Our  Father  in  Heaven  "  had  become  a  popu- 
lar substitute  for  the  old  name  of  God,  which  had 
fallen  into  disuse.  So  the  mere  name  was  not 
original  with  Jesus.  But  granted  that  one  cannot 
claim  for  the  Master's  use  of  the  name  any  verbal 
originality,  still  is  Jesus'  God-faith  brand  new,  His 
idea  original. 

What  God  meant  to  Jesus,  God  had  never  meant 
to  any  one  who  lived  before  Him.  It  was  not 
what  He  said  that  was  new  and  original,  but  it 
was  hozv  He  said  it :  how  his  God  idea  and  His 
feeling  and  willing  acted  and  reacted  on  each 
other ;  how  this  name  "  Father  "  became  in  Him 
the  inspiration  of  a  new  kind  of  living;  how  He 
inspired  others  with  His  own  secret,  until  they 
believed  their  own  souls  and  others  worth  while, 
able  to  live  an  eternal  kind  of  life  in  the  midst  of 
time.  Granted  that  Moses  and  Plato,  Hosea  and 
Sirach  called  God  father,  no  one  of  these  men,  nor 
any  of  their  followers  responded  to  this  father  idea 
as  did  Jesus.  They  said  father,  but  they  lived  as 
if  they  meant  lord.  Jesus  said  Father,  and  all  men 
felt  that  for  Him  it  was  the  only  divine  name,  the 
w^orking   idea   of   life  —  God's   and   man's.     For 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  GOD  II 

Others  the  Fatherhood  of  God  meant  creatorship, 
redeemership,  lordship,  even  mercy,  forgiveness 
and  love;  for  Jesus  Fatherhood  meant  fatherhood, 
that  unique,  intimate,  reciprocal  relationship  which 
exists  between  a  father  and  his  son.  For  others 
Fatherhood  was  a  possible  characteristic  of  God; 
for  Jesus  Fatherhood  was  the  positive  character  of 
God.  Thus  far  the  God-seekers  had  discovered 
only  certain  qualities  of  deity,  Jesus  unveiled  God 
Himself,  and  men  said,  "  God  is  love."  It  was 
like  this.  Three  men  go  into  a  room.  Lying  on 
a  table  in  that  room  is  an  object  no  one  of  them 
has  ever  seen  before.  One  says,  this  object  is 
hollow;  another  says,  this  object  is  wooden;  an- 
other says,  this  object  is  brown.  Each  one  speaks 
truly;  the  object  is  hollow,  and  it  is  wooden,  and 
it  is  brown.  But  no  one  of  the  men  nor  all  of  them 
together  has  told  us  what  the  object  is  in  itself. 
They  have  discovered  only  certain  qualities  which 
the  object  possesses.  The  object  is  still  unknown 
to  us.  At  last  there  comes  into  the  room  a  fourth 
man;  he  approaches  the  object  on  the  table;  with- 
out a  word,  he  lifts  the  h'ollow,  brown,  wooden 
thing  and  nestles  it  close  to  his  throat,  and  then 
across  it,  back  and  forth  he  draws  a  bow,  and  the 
music  leaps  out  and  opens  heaven,  and  we  see  the 
angels  ascending  and  descending.  The  first  three 
named  three  characteristics  of  this  interesting 
object,  the  fourth  man  let  us  hear  the  object  sing 


12  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

of  its  inmost  self,  and  we  said  to  ourselves,  it  is  a 
violin. 

Men  said,  God  is  all-powerful  and  He  may  be 
fatherly.  Jesus  made  us  know  that  our  Father 
is  all-powerful.  They  meant  God's  character  is 
power,  and  one  characteristic  may  be  fatherliness. 
He  showed  us  that  God's  character  is  Fatherhood, 
of  which  one  characteristic  is  power.  It  all  comes 
out  in  that  wonderful  prayer  which  Jesus  taught 
to  His  disciples.  ''After  this  manner  therefore 
pray  ye:  Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven,  Hal- 
lowed be  thy  name.  Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy 
will  be  done,  as  in  heaven,  so  on  earth.  Give  us 
this  day  our  daily  bread.  And  forgive  us  our 
debts,  as  we  also  have  forgiven  our  debtors.  And 
bring  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from 
the  evil  one."  The  apostrophe,  ''  Our  Father," 
gives  rise  to  all  that  follows.  That  name  is  the 
most  high  and  hallowed  thing  in  the  mind  of  the 
man  who  utters  it. 

The  Fatherhood  is  the  source  and  satisfaction 
of  the  soul  who  prays.  Out  of  that  Fatherhood 
spring  the  divine  kingship,  the  divine  will,  the 
supply  for  daily  living,  the  infinite  functions  of  re- 
pair and  redemption.  The  man  who  prays  this 
prayer  believes  not  merely  in  a  reign  of  law,  but 
in  the  reign  of  a  Father  through  law;  he  believes 
not  in  bare  sovereignty  to  which  all  things  must 
yield  because  the  sovereignty  is  irresistible;  but 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  GOD  13 

he  believes  in  the  sovereignty  wherein  there  are 
no  subjects,  only  sons.  He  knows  himself  safe, 
not  because  his  king  is  fatherly,  but  because  his 
Father  is  kingly.  Here  is  Jesus'  idea  of  the  divine 
omnipotence.  The  Jew  taught  that  God  was  first 
king,  then  kind;  Jesus  has  made  us  believe  that 
God  is  first  kind,  then  kingly.  The  Jew  believed 
that  fatherliness  was  an  imperial  favor  which  the 
great  king  might  dispense;  Jesus  believed  that 
Fatherhood  was  the  mainspring  of  the  divine 
character,  the  beating  heart  of  the  Eternal. 

Men  said,  the  God  of  the  plan  may  be  fatherly. 
Jesus  made  us  know  that  our  Father  is  the  God 
of  the  plan.  They  meant  God's  character  is  om- 
niscience, and  one  characteristic  may  be  fatherli- 
ness; He  showed  us  that  God's  character  is 
Fatherhood,  of  which  one  charateristic  is  wisdom. 
We  get  His  point  of  view  in  that  beautiful  saying, 
"  Are  not  two  sparrows  sold  for  a  penny  ?  and 
not  one  of  them  shall  fall  on  the  ground  without 
your  Father:  but  the  very  hairs  of  your  head  are 
all  numbered.''  Here  is  an  assurance  that  the 
plan  is  no  mere  architect's  design,  once  finished 
and  then  left  to  hirelings  to  carry  to  completion, 
while  the  designer  sits  in  his  sanctum  far  away 
from  the  building's  dust  and  noise.  The  plan  is 
the  Father's  purpose  for  His  dear  household,  and 
the  architect's  eye,  and  the  architect's  hand  "  go 
as  far  as  our  fears  go,  nay,  as  far  as  life  itself  — 


14  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

life  down  even  to  its  smallest  manifestations  in  the 
order  of  nature." 

Here,  indeed,  was  a  new  thought.  The  Jews 
of  Jesus'  time  had  the  idea  that  God's  busi- 
ness with  men  was  carried  on  by  angelic  messen- 
gers. God  Himself  might  send,  but  God  never 
came.  They  saw  no  present  deity,  but  they  were 
expecting  one.  Jesus  saw  the  Father  everywhere. 
God  had  not  stopped  working,  He  was  busy  in 
the  field  and  the  sky,  the  sea  and  the  soul.  God 
had  not  ceased  speaking;  He  Himself,  and  not 
angels,  spake  in  the  lily  and  the  bird,  in  conscience 
and  the  human  voice.  Jesus  found  men  thinking 
of  God  as  a  consulting  engineer,  an  absentee  gov- 
ernor; He  left  men  thinking  of  God  as  the  ever- 
present  Father  in  whom  "  we  live,  and  move,  and 
have  our  being." 

Men  said,  God  is  holy,  He  is  perfect,  He  may 
be  paternal.  Jesus  made  us  know  that  our  Father 
is  holy,  our  Father  is  perfect.  They  meant  God's 
character  is  all-powerful,  all-wise  perfection,  which 
may  be  uttered  in  fatherliness ;  Jesus  told  us  that 
God's  character  is  Fatherhood,  which  utters  itself 
perfectly.  The  idea  of  God's  absolute  whiteness 
was  the  highest  ideal  the  race  had  imagined;  but 
it  left  life  cold  and  lonely.  The  thought  of  God's 
perfection  lifted  God  out  of  man's  reach;  He  was 
high  as  heaven,  what  could  one  do?  deep  as  hell, 
what  could  one  know  ?     The  idea  of  the  divine 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  GOD  15 

perfection  awakened  in  the  soul  the  sense  of  per- 
sonal unfitness,  despicable  meanness,  which  put 
an  impassable  abyss  between  God  and  man.  God 
and  man  were  more  profoundly  separated  by  the 
moral  antithesis  of  good  and  bad  than  they  had 
been  before  by  the  antithesis  of  strong  and  weak, 
all-knowing  and  ignorant.  Then  Jesus  came  and 
He  had  another  definition  of  the  divine  perfect- 
ness.  "  I  say  unto  you,  Love  your  enemies,  and 
pray  for  them  that  persecute  you;  that  ye  may 
be  sons  of  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven ;  for  He 
maketh  His  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  the  good, 
and  sendeth  rain  on  the  just  and  the  unjust.  Ye 
therefore  shall  be  perfect,  as  your  heavenly  Fa- 
ther is  perfect."  Here  is  a  new  definition  of  the 
divine  perfection;  it  is  the  habit  the  Father  has 
of  making  His  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  the  good, 
the  way  He  is  used  to  sending  His  rain  on  the 
just  and  the  unjust.  This  is  holiness,  as  the 
Master  understood  it;  not  ethical  separation,  nor 
moral  transcendence,  nor  inimitableness  of  char- 
acter, but  bountiful,  impartial,  ungrudging  benefi- 
cence. To  bless  without  stint,  to  bless  thus,  the 
unjust  as  well  as  the  just,  to  love  the  unlovely,  to 
pray  for  the  persecutor,  this  is  perfection,  God's 
perfection,  and  so  man's.  God  is  our  Father  of 
unbounded,  gratuitous,  ungrudging  love.  This  is 
Jesus'  idea  of  God. 

It  was  this  Father  Jesus  lived  to  unveil.     This 


1 6  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

was  His  life's  purpose,  to  get  men  to  say,  *'  Our 
Father,"  and  saying  it,  to  believe  that  they  were 
talking  directly  to  the  Infinite  and  Eternal  source 
and  satisfaction  of  nature  and  human  nature,  and 
believing  it,  to  live  in  the  world  as  children  in  a 
Father's  house,  free  from  care  and  full  of  love. 
How  strongly  He  Himself  believed  in  His  God- 
idea,  we  feel  when  He  says,  "  He  that  hath  seen 
me  hath  seen  the  Father."  These  words  are  not 
strange  except  as  we  make  them  so.  He  and  His 
disciples  were  not  talking  about  Himself.  "Shew 
us  the  Father,"  Philip  had  said.  They  wanted 
something  that  they  could  see  that  would  help 
them  to  understand  the  Father  whom  they  did  not 
see;  and  that  is  what  Jesus  gave  them,  the  one 
thing  He  knew  which  was  most  like  God,  Him- 
self; and  so  He  said,  "  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath 
seen  the  Father."  No  plain  man  hearing  another 
speak  those  words  would  interpret  them  to  mean 
that  the  speaker  meant  that  He  and  His  Father 
were  the  same  person.  He  would  understand  that 
the  speaker  meant  that  He  and  His  Father  agreed, 
that  they  had  one  thought,  one  feeling,  one  way 
of  acting.  Here  is  a  man;  you  never  met  his 
father ;  you  admire  the  man  and  wonder  what  sort 
of  person  his  father  is.  I  know  the  man's  father, 
and  I  tell  you,  "  When  you  see  the  son  you  see  the 
father;  he  is  the  father's  double;  he  has  his  accent, 
his    expression,    his    manner."     You    understand 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  GOD  ly 

that  I  mean  that  the  son  is  the  living  picture  of  his 
father.  That  is  what  Jesus  meant,  when  He  said, 
**  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father," 
that  is,  I  am  the  Father's  double,  He  thinks  as  I 
think,  He  feels  as  I  feel,  He  does  as  I  do. 

Nothing  that  God  is  contradicts  what  Jesus  was. 
Nothing  that  Jesus  was  belies  what  God  is.  Jesus 
is  so  much  like  God  that  we  have  to  find  out  only 
what  Jesus  was  to  know  what  God  is.  Let  us 
take  one  action  in  His  life.  He  had  gone  about 
doing  good.  He  had  never  claimed  His  rights, 
He  had  never  reckoned  what  he  might  get  in  re- 
turn for  His  service;  He  had  never  cherished  an 
insult;  He  had  never  nursed  a  grudge;  He  had 
never  seemed  to  see  anything  in  the  men  about 
Him  but  their  need  of  the  good  things  He  had  to 
give  away.  They  crowned  His  brow  with  a 
wreath  of  thorns;  they  stripped  Him  of  all  His 
earthly  estate,  that  cloak  that  was  pure  white 
woven  without  seam;  they  hung  Him  by  four 
wounds  between  two  thieves;  and  while  they 
were  doing  it,  He  talked  to  His  Father, 
talked  to  His  Father  about  the  traitor  friend 
who  had  made  his  best  friend  a  bargain, 
about  the  churchmen  who  had  by  perjury  secured 
the  verdict  of  death,  about  the  Roman  whose 
cowardice  had  put  the  finishing  touch  upon  the 
ghastly  parody  of  law,  about  the  crucifiers  who 
were  the  tools   in  the  red  hands  of  those  who 


l8  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

wrought  this  crowning  tragedy ;  and  this  was  what 
He  said  to  His  Father,  "Father,  forgive  them; 
for  they  know  not  what  they  do."  He  beHeved 
that  God  was  such  an  one  as  could  be  talked  to 
that  way;  that  God  felt  as  He  felt;  that  God  is 
forgiving  as  He  was  forgiving;  that  God  is  the 
Father  of  unbounded,  gratuitous,  ungrudging  love. 
That  is  why  ever  since,  we  have  said,  we  see 
God  in  Jesus,  we  find  Christ  in  God.  For  all 
practical  purposes  of  living  God  is  Jesus.  Some- 
how on  that  belief  the  facts  of  life  fall  into  order 
and  the  soul  breathes  deep  and  slow  a  peace  which 
passeth  understanding.  We  may  live  our  lives 
without  care,  they  are  in  the  Father's  strong  hand ; 
we  may  live  our  lives  without  fear  of  the  future 
or  any  change,  the  way  of  the  pilgrimage  is 
marked  down  on  the  Father's  wise  plan;  we  may 
live  our  lives  with  cheer,  the  Father  loves  as  Jesus 
loved,  to  the  uttermost. 


II 

JESUS'  IDEA  OF  HIMSELF 


"Knew  ye  not  that  I  must  be  in  my  Father's  house?" 

"  All  things  have  been  delivered  unto  me  of  my  Father : 
and  no  one  knoweth  w^ho  the  Son  is,  save  the  Father;  and 
who  the  Father  is,  save  the  Son ;  and  he  to  whomsoever 
the  Son  willeth  to  reveal  Him." 

"As  they  were  coming  down  from  the  mountain,  Jesus 
commanded  them,  saying,  Tell  the  vision  to  no  man,  until 
the  Son  of  man  be  risen  from  the  dead." 

"  Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of  the  Spirit  into  the  wilderness 
to  be  tempted  of  tne  devil.  And  when  He  had  fasted  forty 
days  and  forty  nights.  He  afterward  hungered.  And  the 
tempter  came  and  said  unto  Him,  H  thou  art  the  Son  of 
God,  command  that  these  stones  become  bread.  But  He 
answered  and  said.  It  is  written,  Man  shall  not  live  by 
bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the 
mouth  of  God.  Then  the  devil  taketh  Him  into  the  holy 
city;  and  he  set  Him  on  the  pinnacle  of  the  temple,  and 
saith  unto  Him,  If  thou  art  the  son  of  God,  cast  thyself 
down;  for  it  is  written,  He  shall  give  His  angels  charge 
concerning  thee :  and,  on  their  hands  they  shall  bear  thee 
up,  lest  haply  thou  dash  Thy  foot  against  a  stone.  Jesus 
said  unto  him.  Again  it  is  written.  Thou  shalt  not  make 
trial  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  Again,  the  devil  taketh  Him 
unto  an  exceeding  high  mountain,  and  showeth  Him  all 
the  kingdoms  of  the  world,  and  the  glory  of  them;  and  he 
said  unto  Him,  All  these  things  will  I  give  thee,  if  thou 
wilt  fall  down  and  worship  me.  Then  saith  Jesus  unto 
him.  Get  thee  hence,  Satan :  for  it  is  written.  Thou  shalt 
worship  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  Him  only  shalt  thou  serve." 

"  I  ascend  unto  my  Father  and  your  Father." 


11 

JESUS^  IDEA  OF  HIMSELF 

The  Gospel  of  Jesus  was  good  news  about  God. 
It  was  not  Himself  that  the  Master  seemed  inter- 
ested in,  His  theme  was  the  Father.  His  desire 
was  not  to  get  men  to  call  Him  Lord,  but  to  get 
them  to  do  the  will  of  His  Father.  But  as  one 
cannot  get  the  grain  without  the  sower,  so  one 
cannot  know  the  Father  without  Jesus.  He  is  in- 
dispensable, and  what  is  more.  He  knows  He  is 
indispensable ;  "  He  that  soweth  the  good  seed," 
said  He,  "is  the  Son  of  Man."  Buddha,  Plato 
and  Socrates  are  contented  to  be  a  mere  factor  in 
their  message;  Jesus  knows  Himself  to  be  His 
Gospel's  personal  realization  and  dynamic;  as  one 
says,  "  He  knows  no  more  sacred  task  than  to 
point  men  to  His  own  person."  Given  the  other 
God-seeker's  message  and  we  can  do  without  the 
messenger;  would  we  have  Jesus'  message  we 
must  obey  the  call  "  Come  unto  me."  So  it  is 
we  must  ask,  what  place  Jesus  believed  He  Him- 
self had  in  His  Gospel;  what  was  Jesus'  idea  of 
Himself? 

21 


22  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

Across  the  water  is  a  great  cathedral.  You 
have  seen  pictures  of  it;  you  have  read  about  it 
in  books  of  art  and  travel.  You  think  you  know 
it.  You  shut  your  eyes  and  imagine  the  glori- 
ous fagade,  the  lacelike  sculpturing,  the  fine  east 
window,  the  upward  sweeping  towers.  One  day, 
you  cross  the  water  and  visit  the  great  cathedral. 
As  evening  gathers  you  approach  the  minster. 
There  against  the  blue-black  sky  leans  the  beauti- 
ful pile.  It  is  more  than  you  dreamed.  Sud- 
denly there  is  a  glimmer  within,  long  shafts  of 
light  break  through  the  windows,  and  figures  of 
saints  and  angels  gather  in  the  radiance.  On 
the  still  air  the  notes  of  an  unseen  organ  float, 
deep  as  the  thunders  from  a  purple  cloud,  sweet 
as  the  trilling  of  birds  at  twilight.  The  cathe- 
dral speaks  for  itself.  No  one  could  tell  you  what 
it  tells.  With  its  own  light  and  harmony  it  re- 
veals its  transcendent  function.  We  have  seen 
pictures  of  Jesus,  we  have  read  the  books  of  His 
interpreters;  now  we  come  to  Jesus  Himself;  like 
cathedral  light  and  harmony  His  own  life  and 
words  flowing  from  His  soul  speak  to  us  of  Him- 
self, tell  us  what  He  believed  about  His  being  and 
function. 

There  is  a  picture  in  the  cathedral  which  hangs 
just  where  it  is  the  first  thing  we  see  as  we  enter. 
Mary  and  Joseph  had  brought  the  boy  down  to 
Jerusalem.     While   there   they   lost   Him.     They 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  HIMSELF  23 

searched  for  Him  everywhere.  Hoping  against 
hope,  Mary  came  to  the  temple.  There  only  the 
grey-beards  and  the  great  were  used  to  gather  to 
converse  about  God's  high  things  and  man's  deep 
things.  But,  there,  at  home  in  that  company,  His 
face  upturned  to  drink  in  their  speech.  His  breath 
drawling  deep  and  slow  was  her  little  boy.  He 
wondered  only  that  on  missing  Him,  Mary  had 
not  instantly  inquired  at  the  temple ;  she  must  have 
known  about  His  absorbing  interest  in  God's  busi- 
ness ;  "  knew  ye  not  that  I  must  be  in  my 
Father's  house  ?  "  This  picture  of  the  boy  who 
cared  more  about  God's  things  than  anything,  who 
could  not  help  wondering  about  the  difference  be- 
tween Himself  and  His  mother  is  the  key  to  the 
cathedral  of  His  consciousness.  That  absorption 
in  God's  business  which  marked  the  lad  became  in 
the  man  an  absorption  in  God ;  "  all  things  "  said 
He  "  have  been  delivered  unto  me  of  my  Father : 
and  no  one  knoweth  who  the  Son  is,  save  the 
Father ;  and  who  the  Father  is,  save  the  Son ;  and 
he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  willeth  to  reveal  Him." 
At  first  sight  there  may  seem  nothing  es- 
pecially significant  in  this  self-consciousness. 
The  thought  of  God  as  Father  He  shared  with 
others.  He  could  say  wnth  them,  He  taught  them 
to  say  with  Him,  "  Our  Father."  But  as  we 
listen  we  catch  a  something  about  Jesus'  "  My 
Father,"  a  depth  of  meaning,  a  richness,  a  ring 


24  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

which  no  one  else  can  put  into  the  words.  He 
said  no  one  can  say  "  my  Father  "  as  He  can,  "  no 
one  knoweth  who  the  Father  is,  save  the  Son." 
Though  with  His  strong  arm  around  them  He  gave 
the  saintHest  and  the  shamefulest  confidence  to  re- 
peat after  Him,  "  Our  Father  ",  yet  He  was  con- 
scious of  a  relationship  with  the  Father  which 
they  did  not  share.  There  was  a  difference  be- 
tween the  best  and  Him.  His  sonship  was  more 
than  theirs,  so  much  more  that  He  knew  Himself 
to  be  taking  only  His  proper  name  when  He  called 
Himself  ''  the  Son." 

Here  is  a  paradox  in  Jesus'  self-consciousness. 
While  He  made  humility  well-nigh  the  grace  out 
of  which  everything  good  grows,  yet  He  named 
Himself,  and  Himself  alone  "  the  Son  " ;  others 
were  sons,  but  for  Himself  He  must  use  the  defi- 
nite article.  His  sonship  was  more  than  other's. 
Jesus  knew,  because  no  one  knew  the  Father  save 
the  Son,  and  of  course  he  to  whom  the  Son  would 
reveal  Him.  That  is,  the  Father  idea  was  His 
discovery,  to  others  it  must  always  be  a  revela- 
tion ;  He  knew  it  by  instinct,  they  must  be  given  it 
by  instruction;  the  Father  He  knew  from  the  be- 
ginning, others  were  only  beginning  to  know ;  the 
Fatherhood  which  was  so  patent  to  Him,  to 
others  was  brand  new  good  news.  While  the  rest 
of  the  children  were  thinking  of  God  just  as 
King,  and  of  themselves  as  the  King's  subjects, 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  HIMSELF  25 

He  knew  God  as  Father  and  Himself  and  all  men 
as  sons,  and  so  He  could  say  "  my  Father  "  as 
no  one  else  could,  and  for  this  cause  He  knew 
His  sonship  must  be  greater  than  theirs. 

His  sonship  was  greater  than  other's,  be- 
cause the  love  of  Father  and  son  which  for  them 
was  one-sided,  was  perfectly  reciprocated  in  Him. 
As  yet  the  love  between  the  Father  and  men 
was  all  on  the  Father's  side.  From  the  first 
Jesus  loved  the  Father  as  the  Father  loved  Him. 
Here  is  the  wonder  of  Jesus'  self-consciousness, 
its  august  self-complacency.  He  whose  presence 
made  the  good  say,  "  depart  from  me,  for  I  am 
sinful,"  challenged  the  good  to  convict  Him  of 
sin.  Was  he  separate  from  sinners,  so  was  He  sep- 
arate from  saints.  Saints  reached  goodness  only 
through  fires  of  remorse  and  baths  of  penitence; 
He  said  simply,  "  I  do  always  the  things  which 
are  pleasing  unto  the  Father."  Once  He  laid 
down  the  terms  of  true  sonship,  "  love  your  ene- 
mies, and  pray  for  them  that  persecute  you;  that 
ye  may  be  sons  of  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven  " ; 
all  needed  to  be  summoned  to  reach  out  to  his  re- 
lationship, all  but  He.  Face  to  face  with  death, 
in  that  hour  when  the  conscience  of  the  morally 
quick  man  inexorably  sums  up  his  life,  Jesus 
seemed  to  feel  only  the  moral  need  of  His  mur- 
derers, and  then  knowing  that  He  had  never  edged 
off  from  perfection's  standard,  conscious  that  He 


26  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

had  realized  the  ideal,  He  said,  "  It  is  finished/' 
He  was  the  Son;  men  were  becoming  sons;  He 
was  full-grown;  men  were  waiting  to  be  born. 
Jesus  believed  Himself  to  be  "  the  Son  of  God." 
But  while  He  called  Himself  "the  Son,"  He 
seemed  to  know  no  difference  in  kind  between 
Himself  and  the  other  sons  of  the  Father.  If 
He  was  "  the  Son  of  God,"  He  was  also  "  the 
Son  of  Man."  Indeed  Son  of  God  was  not  His 
self-designation;  His  favorite  name  for  Himself 
was  "  Son  of  Man."  There  is  one  scene  in  His 
life  which  brings  this  feeling  about  His  human  re- 
lationship to  the  surface.  He  and  three  of  His 
students  were  on  a  mountain  somewhere  in  north 
Palestine.  Suddenly,  the  disciples  see,  or  think 
they  see,  their  blessed  Lord  in  the  company  of 
Moses  the  great  law-giver,  and  Elijah  the  great 
prophet.  And  in  a  moment  a  light  lighter  than 
the  midway  sun  breaks  forth  from  their  Lord  and 
outshines  the  law-giver  and  the  prophet  as  the 
midday  sun  outshines  the  ever  shining  planets. 
And  a  great  voice  is  heard,  "  This  is  my  beloved 
Son."  Then  it  is  written  that  this  divine  Lord 
said,  "  Tell  the  vision  to  no  man,  until  the  Son 
of  Man  be  risen  from  the  dead."  They  had 
recognized  Him  as  divine;  He  cared  more  that 
He  should  be  known  as  human.  "Son  of  Man" 
is  His  own  name  for  Himself;  translated  into  our 
speech  its  simplest  meaning  is  a  standard  human 
being. 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  HIMSELF  2y 

Let  us  call  Jesus  what  names  we  will,  Christ, 
Lord,  Son  of  God ;  these  names  fit  the  fact ;  but  He 
calls  Himself  "  Son  of  Man,"  the  standard  human 
being.  Exalt  His  difference  as  we  will  He  ap- 
pears to  care  more  that  we  shall  exalt  His  hu- 
manity. We  exalt  the  difference;  He  exalts  the 
identity.  We  cherish  the  divinity;  He  cherishes 
the  humanity.  We  call  Jesus  divine  and  we 
know  we  are  true ;  He  calls  Himself  human  and  we 
know  He  is  true.  And  then  we  put  the  two 
ideas  together  and  call  Him  the  Divine  Man. 
Does  that  mean  that  part  of  Him  is  human,  and 
part  divine?  Nay,  it  means  that  humanity  and 
divinity  are  so  alike  that  Jesus  could  be  both  in 
one  homogeneous  life.  We  mean  that  humanity 
and  divinity  overlap  so  that  here  is  no  telling 
where  one  begins  and  the  other  leaves  off.  The 
difference  between  humanity  and  divinity  is  a 
difference  of  degree;  divinity  is  humanity  raised 
to  its  highest  power;  humanity  is  divinity  in  the 
germ.  So  the  divine  Christ  makes  no  claim  to 
be  a  foreigner  from  some  far  off  unnatural  world, 
a  sort  of  spiritual  wedge  driven  into  the  common 
human  nature.  His  divinity  did  not  make  Him 
something  other  than  human;  our  humanity  does 
not  keep  us  something  other  than  divine.  The 
path  is  open  all  the  way  to  the  summit.  It  is  no 
farther  from  the  bottom  to  the  top  than  it  is  from 
the  top  to  the  bottom.     Jesus  believed  Himself- 


28  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

to  be  "the  Son  of  God/'  but  He  believed  Him- 
self to  be  the  brother  of  men. 

Jesus  believed  Himself  to  be  the  Father's  mes- 
senger Son  sent  to  recover  the  lost  children.  In 
our  cathedral  stands  a  two-leaved  door.  It  is 
between  the  vestibule  where  hangs  the  picture  of 
the  little  Galilean  seeking  His  Father's  business, 
and  the  great  fane  where  are  the  altar  and  the 
sacrifice.  The  carving  on  one  leaf  of  this  door- 
way tells  a  story  like  this.  For  nearly  a  score 
of  years  after  that  memorable  visit  to  Jerusalem, 
Jesus  lived  in  the  village  of  Nazareth.  For  us 
those  are  hidden  years;  what  went  on  in  His  in- 
ward life  we  may  not  know,  but  we  may  be  sure 
that  those  years  brought  to  the  growing  man  an 
ever  deej>ening  passion  for  that  business  which 
absorbed  Him  as  a  lad,  "  the  Father's  business." 
At  last,  one  day,  news  came  from  the  southland 
of  a  strange  preacher  who  called  himself  "  a 
voice,"  and  the  message  of  this  voice  was  "  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand."  It  was  the  sort 
of  message  Jesus  had  been  listening  for;  it  was 
just  the  tocsin  to  stir  the  pulses  of  one  who  was 
consumed  with  a  passion  for  the  Father's  busi- 
ness. Spirit  answered  to  spirit;  the  message  of 
the  preacher  claimed  the  soul  of  the  Carpenter. 

But  the  preacher  did  not  only  preach,  John  Bap- 
tist was  forming  a  society;  it  was  a  community 
of  expectant  souls  pledged  to  this  imminent  king- 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  HIMSELF  29 

dom,  and  the  ancient  rite  of  baptism  was  the  form 
of  initiation  into  its  fellowship.  With  complete 
humility,  eager  to  leave  nothing  undone  which 
would  work  toward  the  great  consummation, 
Jesus  sought  initiation  into  this  society  of  the 
kingdom,  He  requested  baptism.  "  And  Jesus, 
when  he  was  baptized,  went  up  straightway  from 
the  water:  and  lo,  the  heavens  were  opened  unto 
Him,  and  He  saw  the  Spirit  of  God  descending 
as  a  dove,  and  coming  upon  Him ;  and  lo,  a  voice 
out  of  the  heavens,  saying.  This  is  my  beloved 
Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased."  Whatever  the 
dove  and  the  voice  were,  they  were  the  outward 
symbols  of  a  genuine  inward  experience,  an  ex- 
perience of  which  there  can  be  only  one  interpre- 
tation, Jesus  was  conscious  that  He  was  what 
His  race  called  the  Messiah. 

That  Jesus  believed  Himself  to  be  the  chosen 
Messiah  there  can  be  no  question.  Toward 
the  end  of  His  life,  while  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Csesarea  Philippi,  He  asked  His  disciples 
one  day  what  opinions  the  people  held  about 
Him.  They  told  Him  that  some  thought  Him 
to  be  John  Baptist,  Elijah,  Jeremiah  or  one 
of  the  prophets.  And  then  He  put  to  them  this 
question,  *' But  who  say  ye  that  I  am?"  And 
Simon  Peter  answered  and  said,  "  Thou  art  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God."  For  a  Jew 
that  confession  could  have  only  one  meaning,  thou 


30  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

art  Messiah.  The  human  voice  identified  what  the 
divine  voice  had  discovered  to  Him  at  His  baptism, 
and  "  Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  him,  Blessed 
art  thou,  Simon  Bar-Jonas,  for  flesh  and 
blood  hath  not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  my  Father 
who  is  in  heaven."  Thus  Jesus  solemnly  confirmed 
the  truth  of  what  Simon  had  said  and  seriously  ac- 
cepted the  designation  of  Messiah  with  its  im- 
plication that  He  stood  in  a  closer  relation  to  God 
than  do  all  other  men.  Five  days  before  He  died, 
He  rode  into  Jerusalem  setting  Himself  into  all 
the  symbols  with  which  the  prophetic  imagination 
had  decorated  the  expected  one,  and  thus  in  a 
way  that  no  one  could  doubt  claimed  the  august 
office  for  Himself. 

Jesus  believed  Himself  to  be  the  Messiah,  but 
the  question  arises,  what  kind  of  a  Messiah  did 
He  believe  Himself  to  be?  The  ideal  of  Messiah 
in  Jesus'  day,  though  universal  was  very  vague, 
very  elastic.  But  all  the  speculations  about  Mes- 
siah and  what  he  should  be  and  do  were  set  into 
one  golden  frame ;  the  Jews  believed  that  a  golden 
age  was  coming.  For  centuries  the  land  had 
been  heartbroken.  One  by  one  the  nations  of  the 
world  had  made  sport  of  it,  despoiled  it,  trampled 
it  as  they  trampled  the  grapes  to  make  wine  for 
their  royal  banquets.  But  the  Jews  hugged  the 
hope  of  that  golden  age  to  their  bruised  breasts. 
In  Jesus'  time  the  hope  was  a  belief  that  God 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  HIMSELF  3 1 

Himself,  or  if  not  God,  then  some  one  like  God, 
would  come  down  to  champion  Israel,  overthrow 
Csesar,  make  the  ancient  kingdom  to  be  the  ad- 
miration of  the  world  and  bring  earthly  plenty, 
glory  and  ease  to  the  children  of  Abraham.  With 
such  a  Messiah  every  Jew  would  sit  in  his  own 
vineyard,  under  his  own  figtree  enjoying  the 
fruits  of  peace.  A  few  of  the  people  like  John 
Baptist  earnestly  believed  that  a  revival  of  real 
religion  had  to  come  before  this  golden  age  could 
be,  and  as  earnestly  wrought  to  prepare  them- 
selves and  others  for  it.  But  withal  the  ideal 
Messiah  was  just  a  Jewish  Csesar,  mightier  than 
Csesar  even  and  certainly  more  moral.  How 
much  of  this  popular  ideal  was  a  part  of  Jesus' 
idea  of  His  Messiahship?  We  find  the  answer  to 
this  question  in  what  is  called  the  Temptation. 
We  turn  to  the  second  leaf  of  the  golden  doorway 
of  our  cathedral. 

Three  of  the  gospels  report  an  incident  in  Jesus' 
life  which  followed  immediately  upon  His  bap- 
tism. St.  Mark  in  the  briefest  way  makes  men- 
tion of  the  fact,  but  emphasizes  its  significance  by 
setting  it  as  the  starting  point  of  his  memorabilia. 
St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke  describe  the  event  with 
warm  Oriental  language.  Their  narrative  lifts 
the  curtain  on  a  tragedy  of  the  inward  life.  One 
cannot  get  away  from  the  feeling  that  what  they 
write  about  was  something  very  real  and  very 


32  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

awful,  something  which  actually  took  place,  some- 
thing which  involved  tremendous  consequences. 
It  was  no  dream,  no  figment  of  the  imagination ; 
it  was  a  crisis  out  of  which  Jesus  came  a  changed 
man.  The  movement  is  dramatic,  the  climax  is 
decisive,  the  details  are  picturesque.  This  is  nec- 
essarily so;  the  story  cannot  be  looked  at  as  if  it 
were  a  photograph.  You  cannot  photograph  a 
soul.  It  were  impossible  for  us  to  have  the  record 
of  an  eye-witness.  In  this  supreme  experience 
Jesus  was  all  alone.  What  the  disciples  knew 
about  the  Temptation,  they  must  have  heard  from 
the  lips  of  Jesus  Himself. 

It  is  told  us  that  in  His  early  teaching,  Jesus 
always  spoke  in  figurative  language,  "  without  a 
parable  spake  He  not  unto  them."  They  were 
like  children.  To  make  them  appreciate  the  in- 
ward, the  spiritual,  He  was  used  to  employing  the 
kindergarten  method,  the  story  way  of  teaching. 
And  so  the  account  of  the  Temptation  is  to  be 
read  like  a  parable.  Jesus  had  to  "  thing  "  it  so 
that  they  could  think  it.  The  picturesque  de- 
tails, the  realistic  setting,  the  dramatic  movement 
are  to  be  understood  as  an  attempt  through  the 
form  of  picture  to  make  intelligible  for  simple 
minds  a  high  mystical  experience.  As  Frederick 
W.  Robertson  says,  "  The  whole  majesty  of  the 
Temptation  is  destroyed  if  you  understand  it  lit- 
erally."    The  artist  Tissot  has  the   sense   of  it. 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  HIMSELF  33 

Interpreting  the  words,  ''  Straightway  the  Spirit 
driveth  Him  into  the  wilderness,"  Tissot  pictures 
Jesus  as  borne  swiftly  on  the  finger-tips  of  a  gi- 
gantic spectre;  but  when  you  look  closely  you 
see  that  this  great  spectre  is  just  the  shadow  of 
Jesus  Himself. 

The  Temptation  occupies  a  significant  position 
in  Jesus'  career.  It  stands  like  a  door  between 
two  rooms,  the  one  a  dim,  small,  meagrely  fur- 
nished chamber;  the  other  a  stately,  vaulted  hall, 
flooded  with  light,  lined  with  great  pictures  and 
furnished  with  exquisite  care.  On  the  one  side  of 
this  door  is  the  simple  Carpenter  of  Nazareth,  the 
dutiful  son  of  Mary  and  Joseph  busy  with  the 
common  duties  of  a  mechanic's  day.  On  the 
other  side  of  this  door  is  the  Teacher,  the  Christ, 
the  Victim,  the  light  and  life  of  men  from  whose 
mystic  spell  the  race  would  not  if  it  could  with- 
draw. On  the  one  side  of  the  Temptation  is  the 
silence  of  the  hidden  years  of  childhood  and  youth. 
On  the  other  side  of  the  Temptation  is  the  au- 
gust claim  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  the  unveiler  of 
the  Father,  the  opener  of  the  eternal  to  the  sons 
of  men.  Before  the  Temptation,  little  that  His 
closest  friends  thought  worth  recording;  after  the 
Temptation  sayings  and  doings  which  were  they 
written  about  every  one,  "  I  suppose "  says 
the  man  who  knew  Him  best,  "  that  even  the 
world    itself   would   not   contain   the   books-   that 


34  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

should  be  written."  Evidently  this  Temptation 
is  something  very  great,  something  that  must  be 
understood  to  understand  the  life  of  Jesus. 

And  first  v^e  must  find  out  v^hat  led  up  to  it. 
Jesus  spent  His  boyhood  and  young  manhood  in 
the  little  town  of  Nazareth.  The  village  lay  then 
as  it  does  now,  in  a  cuplike  hollow  of  the  Galilean 
hills.  These  hills  which  ring  it  round  like  a  giant 
breastwork  defend  it  from  the  outside  world  and 
made  it  a  natural  hermitage  for  one  whose  bent 
is  meditative.  But  just  over  the  edge  of  this  hol- 
low, at  the  summit  of  these  hills  upon  the  south, 
there  runs  a  great  cleft  across  the  country  from 
the  sea-coast  to  the  Jordan  valley.  And  through 
this  cleft  lies  the  chief  highway  between  the  East 
and  the  West.  A  little  climb  from  the  heart  of 
the  village  brought  one  in  sight  of  a  panorama  of 
"  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  and  the  glory  of 
them."  For  standing  on  the  hills  above  Naza- 
reth and  looking  southward  one  could  see  wind- 
ing their  way  along  this  ancient  trunkline  the 
caravans,  whose  unceasing  movement  mingled  the 
peoples  of  the  earth.  Moving  like  colored  beads 
upon  a  thread  of  gold  there  were  travellers  and 
merchants,  messengers  and  slaves,  and  citizens 
and  haughty  officials  and  soldiers  of  that  proud 
Roman  race  which  held  the  world  enthrall. 

Here  was  ample  environment  for  the  culture  of 
a  soul.     In  the  little  hilltown  was  the  solitude  for 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  HIMSELF  35 

tne  quickening  of  the  spiritual  sense,  and  just 
a  step  away  was  the  stirring  atmosphere  of  the 
thronging  world,  the  unveiling  of  the  race.  In 
this  seedplot  Jesus  grew  secretly  and  silently.  No 
eye  may  search  out  the  subtle  agents  which  in 
the  workshop  of  His  soul  wove  those  vast  ideas 
and  ideals  which  made  Him  what  He  was.  The 
process  we  may  not  trace,  the  result  we  know. 
Still  this  much  we  may  know,  He  learned  as  all 
Hebrew  boys  learned  by  heart  the  collection  of 
the  sacred  writings.  They  were  not  only  the  lit- 
erature of  His  nation,  its  history  and  poetry,  but 
they  were  its  law-books,  its  religion's  text-book. 
He  drank  deep  draughts  of  those  dear  dreams  and 
hopes  which  all  Hebrew  mothers  kept  clean  and 
bright  in  the  cupboard  of  their  faith.  With  the 
home  for  a  schoolroom  Mary  and  Joseph  were 
His  preceptors.  He  was  no  son  of  the  schools, 
no  pupil  of  the  Rabbinic  teachers,  no  novitiate 
of  the  priesthood.  The  years  drew  on,  bringing 
with  them,  we  may  not  know  what  eagerness  for 
the  fulfillment  of  His  race's  dream,  of  the  golden 
age,  of  its  usher  and  king,  the  great  Messiah. 

And  then  of  a  sudden  in  the  lifting  of  an  eye- 
lid, out  of  the  arching  heavens  into  His  inmost 
soul  came  that  astounding  discovery,  the  golden 
age  had  come,  and  He  was  the  Messiah,  God's 
beloved  Son  through  whom  the  other  sons  were 
to  participate  in  the  Kingdom  of  God.     He  went 


36  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

down  into  the  Jordan  the  Carpenter  of  Nazareth, 
He  came  out  of  it  the  conscious  Messiah.  The 
discovery  overwhelmed  Him.  He  the  mechanic, 
the  son  of  Mary  and  Joseph  was  the  Father's  Son, 
the  expected  Messiah!  Could  it  be  true?  That 
was  the  vital  question.  The  settlement  of  that 
question  with  all  it  involved  was  the  Temptation 
of  Jesus.  The  soul  in  Him  needed  a  loneliness 
where  He  might  think,  where  He  might  meet  the 
issue  and  define  His  function.  It  was  an  awe- 
some awakening,  from  mechanic  to  Messiah,  and 
straightway  the  Spirit  in  Him  drove  Him  into 
the  wilderness,  and  He  was  there  in  hunger  and 
thirst  of  soul,  there  testing  Himself  and  that  stu- 
pendous self-discovery,  there  in  sweat  and  blood 
of  spirit,  until  at  last  He  had  solved  these  prob- 
lems,—  What  was  Messiah's  work  ?  Under  what 
conditions  must  He  do  Messiah's  work?  What 
methods  must  He  as  Messiah  use? 

In  the  Gospel  story  the  scene  shifts  three  times. 
First  we  read,  "  And  when  He  had  fasted  forty 
days  and  forty  nights.  He  afterward  hun- 
gered. And  the  tempter  came  and  said  unto  Him, 
If  thou  art  the  Son  of  God,  command  that  these 
stones  become  bread.  But  He  answered  and 
said.  It  is  written,  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread 
alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of 
the  mouth  of  God."  He  was  the  Son  of  God, 
the    question    was,    what    was    the    Son    to    do? 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  HIMSELF  37 

Wholly  absorbed  in  His  thought  Jesus  forgot 
food,  till  at  last  He  faced  stark  need.  Hungry 
and  with  not  a  morsel  to  eat;  hungry  and  yet 
God's  Messiah!  What  a  contradiction!  How 
inadequate  His  life  equipment  to  fit  the  dream  of 
His  people.  They  were  looking  for,  He  Himself 
had  been  expecting,  a  Messiah  who  should  bring 
with  Him  earthly  plenty,  prosperity  and  peace. 

What  was  it  Isaiah  said,  "The  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  Jehovah  is  upon  me;  because  Jehovah  hath 
anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  unto  the 
meek;  He  hath  sent  me  to  bind  up  the  broken- 
hearted, to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives,  and 
the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound; 
to  proclaim  the  year  of  Jehovah's  favor,  and  the 
day  of  vengeance  of  our  God ;  to  comfort  all  that 
mourn;  to  appoint  unto  them  that  mourn 
in  Zion,  to  give  unto  them  a  garland  for  ashes, 
the  oil  of  joy  for  mourning,  the  garment  of  praise 
for  the  spirit  of  heaviness ;  that  they  may  be  called 
trees  of  righteousness,  the  planting  of  Jehovah, 
that  He  may  be  glorified.  And  they  shall  build 
the  old  wastes,  they  shall  raise  up  the  former  deso- 
lations, and  they  shall  repair  the  waste  cities,  the 
desolations  of  many  generations.  And  strangers 
shall  stand  and  feed  your  flocks,  and  foreigners 
shall  be  your  ploughmen  and  your  vine-dressers. 
But  ye  shall  be  named  the  priests  of  Jehovah ;  men 
shall  call  you  the  ministers  of  our  God;  ye  shall 


38  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

eat  the  wealth  of  the  nations,  and  in  their  glory 
shall  ye  boast  yourselves/' 

That  was  Isaiah's  ideal  of  Messiah  and  what 
Jesus  had  been  taught  to  look  for.  But  what  a 
contrast!  Could  He  be  the  bringer  of  earthly 
prosperity  and  temporal  ampleness  while  He  Him- 
self was  famished  for  food?  Could  He  offer 
Himself  to  His  countrymen  while  He  was  dying 
for  the  simplest  necessity  of  life?  Would  they 
believe  in  Him?  Could  He  believe  in  Himself? 
unless,  there  was  in  Him  some  strange  new  power 
by  which  He  could  turn  nothing  into  abundance! 
How  eagerly  the  thought  would  insinuate  itself, 
Messiah  may  be  able  to  turn  stones  into  bread; 
such  an  ability  would  commend  Him  to  Him- 
self, commend  Him  to  His  nation.  But,  as 
eagerly  came  another  thought,  the  remembrance 
of  an  old  word  which  Moses  had  spoken,  a  word 
which  He  Himself  had  proved  valid  in  His  own 
experience,  "  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone, 
but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the 
mouth  of  God."  Now  He  saw  clearly;  the  nation's 
ideal  was  low ;  they  had  let  their  hopes  twine  about 
things  earthly  while  their  hopes  should  have  been 
spiritual.  The  deepest  need  of  their  life  was  God; 
their  insatiate  hunger  was  for  the  spiritual;  a 
man  was  not  a  body;  he  had  a  body,  he  was  a 
soul;  if  the  soul  died  the  man  died,  even  though 
the  body  was  glutted  with  plenty. 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  HIMSELF  39 

Should    Messiah   have   power  to   make   stones 
bread,  this  would  not  prove  Him  Son  of  God; 
though   men  needed    bread,   though   houses   and 
lands,  peace  and  industrial  success  were  imminent 
necessities,  still  men  needed  more,  freedom  from 
sin,  power  for  goodness,  knowledge  of  God,  knowl- 
edge of  themselves  as  sons  of  the  Eternal.     And 
He  who  would  save  men  must  have  the  richness  to 
fill  these  inward  wants ;  He  must  be  ready  to  give 
life  to  men's  souls,  the  life  which  bread  cannot 
keep  going,   the  life  which  is  nourished  by  the 
word  of  God.     Not  to  feed  bodies  but  to  feed 
souls,  w^as  Messiah's  mission;  not  to  the  outward 
but  to  the  inward  was  the  Son  of  God  sent.     The 
question   was,   should   He   be   the   Messiah   they 
looked  for,  or  the  Messiah  they  needed  ?     Should 
He  save  the  outward  or  the  inward  life  ?     Should 
He  be  a  mere  bread-winner  or  a  life-giver?     That 
was   the  problem   He   solved    for   Himself   with 
those  great  words,  "  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread 
alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of 
the  mouth  of  God."     The  time  was  expecting  an 
industrial  reformation;  Jesus  saw  that  His  was  to 
be  a  spiritual  reformation ;  they  were  asking  easier 
lives,  Jesus  was  to  give  them  holy  lives;  they 
wanted  to  be  saved  from  Rome;  Jesus  was  to 
save  them  from  themselves. 

The  second  scene  in  the  Temptation  is  told  in 
these  words,  ''  Then  the  devil  taketh  Him  into  the 


40  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

Holy  City ;  and  he  set  Him  on  the  pinnacle  of  the 
temple,  and  saith  unto  Him,  If  thou  art  the  Son 
of  God,  cast  thyself  down:  for  it  is  written,  He 
shall  give  His  angels  charge  concerning  thee :  and, 
on  their  hands  they  shall  bear  thee  up,  lest  haply 
thou  dash  thy  foot  against  a  stone.  Jesus  said 
unto  him,  Again  it  is  written,  Thou  shalt  not  make 
trial  of  the  Lord  thy  God."  The  question  of  the 
nature  of  Messiah's  work  settled  for  Himself, 
Jesus  had  to  face  another  problem,  under  what 
conditions  was  He  to  carry  on  this  work  of  spirit- 
ual redemption.  His  ideal  of  Messiahship  would 
seem  revolutionary;  it  would  be  exasperatingly 
disappointing  to  His  countrymen  with  their  Mes- 
sianic idea  of  world-power.  They  would  flock  to 
Him  expecting  to  be  fed,  and  He  would  have  to 
say,  "  Work  not  for  the  food  which  perisheth, 
but  for  the  food  which  abideth  unto  eternal  life, 
which  the  Son  of  Man  shall  give  unto  you:  for 
Him  the  Father,  even  God,  hath  sealed " ;  and 
would  He  be  able  to  prove  to  them  that  He  was 
sealed?  When  they  would  demand,  ''what  then 
doest  thou  for  a  sign,  that  we  may  see,  and  be- 
lieve Thee  ? "  would  He  be  able  to  prove  His 
eminence  by  making  some  unnatural  draft  on 
Providence  ? 

He  would  go  to  the  Holy  City  to  claim  the 
men  there  for  His  Father's  kingship;  other  men 
had  gone  to  Jerusalem  to  do  this  same  spiritual 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  HIMSELF  4 1 

work,  and  in  disappointment  Jerusalem  had  killed 
their  prophets  and  stoned  them  that  afore- 
time were  sent  unto  her.  Would  he  have 
to  work  under  their  limitations,  or  could 
He  expect  miraculous  intervention?  There, 
for  instance,  was  that  high  place  at  the  south- 
eastern angle  of  Herod's  temple.  Suppose  they 
should  in  exasperation  drag  Him  to  that  pinnacle 
to  fling  Him  down  into  the  Kedron,  flowing  four 
hundred  fifty  feet  below,  would  the  Father 
intervene  in  His  behalf?  The  Psalmist  had  sung 
of  Messiah,  "  He  shall  give  His  angels  charge 
concerning  thee:  and,  on  their  hands  they  shall 
bear  thee  up,  lest  haply  thou  dash  thy  foot  against 
a  stone."  He  was  God's  Messiah;  could  He 
claim  that  promise?  Caught  there  between  earth 
and  heaven,  by  the  unseen  hand  of  His  Father 
would  He  not  verify  His  Messiahship  beyond  a 
doubt?  Such  a  spectacle  would  silence  all  ques- 
tion as  to  His  power  to  give  life;  it  would  give 
authority  to  His  word  when  He  bade  men  think 
not  of  mere  daily  bread,  but  of  the  word  that 
proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God. 

But  in  a  flash  there  came  to  Jesus  another 
thought.  He  remembered  how  when  the  fore- 
fathers were  coming  out  of  Egypt,  they  lighted 
upon  a  place  where  there  was  no  water;  and  be- 
cause they  could  get  no  drink  for  themselves  and 
their  herds,  Israel  cried  out  in  doubt  and  anger, 


42  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

"  Wherefore  hast  thou  brought  us  up  out  of 
Egypt,  to  kill  us  and  our  children  and  our  cattle 
with  thirst  ?  Is  Jehovah  among  us  or  not  ?  "  He 
saw  those  Hebrews  testing  God  by  their  narrow 
ideas  of  Providence,  putting  the  idea  of  God's 
care  and  purpose  to  the  trial  of  a  mouthful  of 
water;  and  in  their  ingratitude  and  faithfulness, 
He  saw  the  reflection  of  this  suggestion  which 
had  come  to  Him  that  He  challenge  the  Father 
for  some  demonstration  that  He  was  the  Son  of 
God.  And  as  if  that  thought  were  a  serpent  He 
flung  it  from  Him  saying,  "  Thou  shalt  not  make 
trial  of  the  Lord  thy  God."  It  was  the  great 
word  Moses  had  given  Israel  reminding  them  of 
their  distrust,  and  Jesus  took  it  up  and  assimilated 
it  to  His  own  experience.  The  issue  stood  be- 
fore Him  naked,  His  work  was  spiritual,  its  con- 
ditions must  be  spiritual.  He  would  seek  no  ex- 
ceptional privilege.  He  would  expect  to  be  saved 
from  none  of  life's  hardship  and  peril,  He  would 
ask  for  no  supernatural  endowment,  He  would 
toil  as  a  man,  be  a  brother  to  want,  sorrow  and 
blame;  it  would  not  be  Himself  He  would  seek 
to  save,  His  search  would  be  for  others.  He  was 
the  Son  of  God,  the  messenger  Son  sent  to  recover 
the  lost  children. 

These  questions  concerning  the  nature  of  Mes- 
siah's lifework  and  its  conditions  settled,  was 
He  carried  away  with   a   rapture  of  impatience 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  HIMSELF  4^ 

to  win  the  world  for  His  Father?  What  a  great 
world  it  was  to  win!  Standing  on  the  hill-top 
near  Nazareth,  on  the  edge  of  the  Plain  of  Es- 
draelon,  He  had  seen  the  world  in  miniature  pass 
in  review  in  those  ceaseless  caravans  that  used  the 
highway  between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Far 
East.  From  that  point  of  vantage  He  had  been 
carried  often  on  the  wings  of  imagination  to  the 
utmost  limit  of  time  and  clime.  Now  looking 
into  the  serious  eyes  of  His  Messiahship,  He 
could  see  again  what  He  had  seen  from  His  native 
hill-crest,  "  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  and  the 
glory  of  them."  And  they  were  all  needing  Him, 
needing  this  redemption  of  the  inward  life,  need- 
ing this  nourishing  word  of  God,  and 

"  His  spirit  leaped  within  Him  to  be  gone  before  Him  then, 
Underneath  the  light  He  looks  at,  in  among  the  throngs  of 
men." 

But,  how  was  He  to  win  them?  His  Messi- 
anic work  was  to  be  spiritual,  and  as  Messiah  He 
was  to  work  as  a  man  works.  He  had  settled 
those  questions  forever.  But  how  was  it  that 
men  got  influence  over  men?  What  were  the 
methods  which  the  great  used  to  win  allegiance 
for  themselves?  The  ancient  empires,  Assyria, 
Babylon,  Persia,  Egypt,  His  fatherland  —  what 
was  their  glory,  where  was  it?  It  had  vanished 
like  smoke;  the  world  had  only  one  glory  now, 
the   gleaming  radiance  of  imperial   Rome.     Her 


44  T^HE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

bronze  eagles  screamed  from  the  borders  of  the 
mysterious  northland  to  the  farthest  hmits  of  the 
Nile;  the  word  of  Caesar  was  the  glory  of  the 
nations  which  abode  between  the  ancient  river  of 
Eden  and  the  Pillars  of  Hercules.  This  was  the 
world's  glory,  the  arms  of  the  Roman,  whose  red- 
handed  procurators  sat  in  every  province  and 
taught  the  people  that  power  was  life's  one  law, 
man's  one  way  to  mastery  with  his  fellows.  And 
should  Messiah  use  this  way  ?  Should  He  win  his 
spiritual  kingship  as  Caesar  had  won  his  empire? 
The  narrative  reads,  "  Again,  the  devil  taketh 
Him  unto  an  exceeding  high  mountain,  and  show- 
eth  Him  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world,  and  the 
glory  of  them;  and  he  said  unto  Him,  All  these 
things  will  I  give  thee,  if  thou  wilt  fall  down  and 
worship  me."  The  old  method  of  the  prophetic 
appeal  seemed  so  abortive;  the  prophets  had  come 
and  gone  and  still  the  kingdom  was  yet  to  come. 
Had  not  the  day  of  that  appeal  gone,  may  not 
the  day  of  force  have  dawned  ?  "  Then  saith 
Jesus  unto  him.  Get  thee  hence,  Satan:  for  it  is 
written.  Thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord,  thy  God, 
and  Him  only  shalt  thou  serve."  And  what  is 
God?  He  is  my  Father,  the  Father  whose  life 
is  love,  whose  law  is  love,  whose  way  is  love. 
Worship  force!  Worship  God,  and  God  is  love; 
love  is,  love  shall  be  my  King  and  Lord.  He 
was  the  Son  of  God,  He  was  the  brother  of  men, 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  HIMSELF  45 

He  was  the  messenger  Son  sent  to  recover  the 
lost  brothers. 

The  three  pictures  in  the  panels  of  the  Temp- 
tation mean  this,  when  Jesus  came  to  Himself, 
when  He  realized  His  Messiahship,  when  He  tested 
the  grounds  of  His  splendid  new  consciousness, 
He  was  made  sure  that  He  was  to  violate  the 
orthodox  ideal  of  Messiah;  while  they  were  ex- 
pecting God's  vicegerent  to  make  Israel  a  world 
powder,  He  as  the  Father's  vicegerent  was  to  bring 
in  a  spiritual  kingdom,  an  inward  state  in  which 
the  Father  was  to  be  sovereign  and  the  love-way 
the  law. 

This  is  what  it  meant  to  Jesus  to  be  Mes- 
siah, to  give  to  other  men,  to  his  brothers  the 
final  truth  about  God,  that  God  was  His  Father 
and  theirs,  and  to  help  them  to  live  in  the  world 
as  the  Father's  children,  free  from  care  and  full 
of  love.  As  one  has  written,  *'  If  the  story  of  the 
Temptation  means  anything,  it  means  He  mas- 
tered the  title  (Messiah)  instead  of  it  mastering 
Him.  The  Messianic  dream  had  conquered  all 
others;  He  conquered  it.  He  was  the  Life;  it 
was  the  tool  of  the  Life  —  a  tool  which  had  been 
constructed  for  the  destruction  of  Israel's  enemy, 
but  which  it  was  His  high  mission  to  reconstruct 
and  retemper  into  an  instrument  of  healing  and 
mercy  for  the  nations.  The  idea  did  not  make 
the  Life;   the  Life   picked  up  the  clumsy  misfit 


46  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

idea,  cleaned  it,  reorganized  it,  humanized  it,  and 
assigned  it  a  function  to  Himself  and  to  others, 
for  which  by  nature  it  was  disqualified  —  even  as 
that  Life  had  ever  regenerated  the  natural  into 
the  spiritual,  caused  old  things  to  pass  away,  and 
made  all  things  new." 

His  great  account  with  Himself  settled,  when 
next  the  world  saw  Him,  Jesus  was  reading  the 
old  prophet's  dream  of  Messiah,  how  when  He 
came  He  would  say,  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is 
upon  me,  because  He  anointed  me  to  preach 
good  tidings  to  the  poor ;  He  hath  sent  me  to  pro- 
claim release  to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of 
sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are 
bruised,  to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the 
Lord."  And  when  He  had  finished  (and  it  is 
significant  how  He  stopped  reading  just  at  those 
words  which  made  the  darling  thought  of  Israel 
"and  the  day  of  vengeance  of  our  God")  "He 
began  to  say  unto  them.  To-day  hath  this  Scrip- 
ture been  fulfilled  in  your  ears."  This  is  the  sig- 
nificant in  Jesus'  claim  to  be  Messiah,  while  spirit- 
ualizing the  thought  of  Messiah's  work.  He  saved 
for  Himself  the  old  messianic  thought  of  Messiah 
as  God's  vicegerent,  the  first-born  of  the  Father. 
He  believed  His  message  was  the  final  one  after 
which  there  could  be  no  other,  that  His  idea  of  the 
messianic  kingdom  was  the  Father's  uttermost 
possible  revelation  of  religion,  that  His  name  for 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  HIMSELF  47 

God  once  received,  the  last  word  had  been  spoken 
for  faith.  He  knew  nothing  higher  than  Him- 
self save  God ;  He  transcended  the  authority  of  the 
past;  He  was  more  than  Moses  and  David,  than 
the  law  or  the  prophets,  than  the  temple  and  the 
religious  codes ;  His  "  I  say  unto  you ''  was  con- 
scious of  no  possible  revision.  "  No  one,"  said  He, 
"  knoweth  who  the  Father  is,  save  the  Son,  and  he 
to  whomsoever  the  Son  willeth  to  reveal  Him." 
This  was  His  ow^n  idea  of  Himself,  He  was  so 
sure  of  the  finality  of  His  spiritual  idea,  of  His 
function  as  the  messenger  Son  that  He  staked 
His  life  upon  it.  The  price  He  paid  argues  that 
He  believed  He  was  God's  ultimate  message  to 
men. 

But  Jesus  believed  Himself  to  be  not  only  the 
Son  of  God,  the  brother  of  men,  and  the  messen- 
ger Son  sent  to  recover  the  lost  brothers.  He 
also  believed  Himself  to  be  empowered  to  impart 
to  men  His  ideal  spirit  of  sonship.  He  thought 
of  Himself  as  no  mere  preacher,  nor  model,  but 
He  was  the  Life  and  the  life-giver.  Here  we 
stand  at  the  central  shrine  in  our  cathedral. 
Everything  leads  up  to  this,  the  altar  whose  fires 
are  the  glory  of  the  minster.  It  is  the  night  be- 
fore He  died ;  eleven  of  His  friends  are  His  guests 
at  the  Passover  meal.  To-morrow  the  little  circle 
would  be  shattered.  The  dogs  whom  fear  had 
held  in  leash  were  unmuzzled  and  were  snarling 


48  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

at  the  door.  His  friends  were  helpless  to  avert 
the  impending  doom.  Only  one  thing  they  could 
do,  only  one  thing  He  wished  them  to  do  and 
with  that  He  would  go  to  death  well  content. 
He  could  endure  the  cross,  He  could  not  endure 
that  He  should  be  forgotten. 

There  were  many  things  of  which  He  had  told 
them  of  which  they  needed  to  be  reminded ;  but  He 
felt  they  needed  His  words  not  so  much  as  they 
needed  Himself.  So  "  as  they  were  eating,  Jesus 
took  bread,  and  gave  to  them  saying,  This  is  my 
body  w4rich  is  given  for  you,  this  do  in  remem- 
brance of  me."  In  this  critical  ante-mortem  mo- 
ment He  not  only  saw  Himself  without  stain,  but 
felt  in  Himself  the  power  to  lift  the  stain  from 
hearts  on  which  the  crimson  lay  burning.  He 
thought  of  Himself  as  no  mere  truth-teller,  but  as 
a  life-giver.  To  those  who  sought  life.  He  said 
''  follow  me."  To  those  who  hungered  for  truth 
He  said,  "  I  am  the  truth."  To  those  who  would 
see  God,  He  called  "  I  am  the  way."  And  with 
the  word  "  I  am  the  life  "  He  claimed  to  live  and 
to  be  the  dynamic  by  which  men  live.  He  felt 
that  the  man  who  wanted  to  live  abundantly  could 
not  do  without  Him ;  He  was  the  bread,  the  water, 
the  door  of  life,  the  vine  from  which  grow  all  the 
branches.  Through  Him  and  through  Him  only 
men  go  to  God,  not  only  by  what  He  says,  but 
more  by  what  He  is.     "  No  man  knoweth  who  the 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  HIMSELF  49 

Father  is,  save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever 
the  Son  willeth  to  reveal  Him." 

This  is  the  awesome  fact  in  His  idea  of  Him- 
self, His  calm  claim  to  indispensableness.  God's 
messenger  Son  sent  to  recover  the  lost  brothers, 
His  message  at  last  is  of  Himself.  Chosen  to 
point  the  way  to  the  Father,  He  knows  He  best 
fulfills  His  function  by  pointing  men  to  Himself. 
Having  as  His  ideal  God's  kingship  in  the  soul, 
He  believes  that  the  kingship  is  realized  by  mak- 
ing His  love-way  the  life  law.  The  Gospel  He 
carried  was  a  Gospel  of  God,  but  for  practical  pur- 
poses it  becomes  a  Gospel  of  Himself.  Called  to 
tell  men  of  the  Father,  He  knows  it  enough  to 
show  men  Himself. 

This  is  Jesus'  idea  of  Himself,  He  was  the  Son 
of  God,  He  was  the  brother  of  men,  He  was  the 
Father's  messenger  Son  sent  to  recover  the  lost 
brothers.  He  was  empowered  to  impart  to  the 
brothers  His  perfect  spirit  of  perfect  sonship. 
Questions  of  philosophy  are  beside  the  mark, 
bone  of  our  bone,  spirit  of  our  spirit,  something 
in  us  votes  with  Thomas  when  he  kneels  and  says, 
"  My  Lord  and  my  God." 


Ill 

JESUS'  IDEA  OF  MAN 


"I  am  the  true  vine,  and  my  Father  is  the  husbandman. 
Abide  in  me  and  I  in  you.  As  the  branch  cannot  bear 
fruit  of  itself,  except  it  abide  in  the  vine;  so  neither  can 
ye  except  ye  abide  in  me.  I  am  the  vine,  ye  are  the 
branches." 

"He  that  believeth  on  me,  the  works  that  I  do  shall  he 
do  also;  and  greater  works  than  these  shall  he  do;  because 
I  go  unto  the   Father." 

"Ye  therefore  shall  be  perfect,  as  your  heavenly  Father 
is  perfect," 

"How  think  ye?  If  any  man  have  a  hundred  sheep,  and 
one  of  them  be  gone  astray,  doth  he  not  leave  the  ninety 
and  nine,  and  go  unto  the  mountains,  and  seek  that  which 
goeth  astray?  And  if  so  be  that  he  find  it,  verily  I  say 
unto  you,  he  rejoiceth  over  it  more  than  over  the  ninety 
and  nine  which  have  not  gone  astray.  Even  so  it  is  not 
the  will  of  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven,  that  one  of  these 
little  ones  should  perish." 

"  He  that  believeth  hath  eternal  life." 

"  Follow  me." 


Ill 

JESUS'  IDEA  OF  MAN 

Jesus  left  no  system  of  theology ;  He  left  Him- 
self as  the  final  idea  of  God.  So  also,  Jesus  left 
no  system  of  philosophy;  He  left  Himself  as  the 
final  idea  of  man.  When  His  disciples  wanted  to 
know  about  the  Father,  Jesus  gave  them  no  defi- 
nition, He  gave  them  a  living  picture,  said  He, 
"He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father." 
When  a  young  patrician  wanted  to  know  about 
life,  Jesus  gave  him  no  theory,  He  gave  Him  a 
living  picture,  said  He,  "Follow  me."  Would 
you  know  what  God  is  you  have  to  know  only 
what  Jesus  is.  Would  you  know  Jesus'  idea  of 
man,  you  have  to  know  only  Jesus  idea  of  Him- 
self. 

We  have  seen  how  Jesus  believed  Himself  to 
be  the  Son  of  God.  He  was  conscious  of  a  un- 
ique filial  relationship  with  God.  He  knew  His 
sonship  was  more  than  other  men's,  as  the  in- 
ventor is  more  than  the  apprentice;  He  knew  by 
instinct  what  others  had  to  learn  by  instruction; 
He  was  the  Son,  others  were  becoming  Sons.     He 

S3 


54  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

knew  His  sonship  was  more  than  other  men's,  as 
the  perfect  is  more  than  the  imperfect;  all  but  He 
needed  the  summons,  "  ye  therefore  shall  be  per- 
fect, as  your  heavenly  Father  is  perfect " ;  He  was 
adult,  others  were  adolescent.  But  He  knew 
Himself  to  be  the  brother  of  men;  His  sonship 
was  not  of  another  kind  than  men's,  it  was  only 
more  than  men's;  there  was  a  difference,  but  it 
was  not  in  the  nature,  it  was  in  the  growth.  He 
was  "  the  firstborn  among  many  brethren." 

Jesus  called  Himself  the  light  of  the  world; 
but  He  said  to  men,  "  ye  are  the  light  of  the 
world."  He  said,  "  he  that  receiveth  me  receiveth 
Him  that  sent  me  " ;  but  He  told  men,  "  He  that 
receiveth  you  receiveth  me."  He  claimed  to  do 
divine  works ;  but  He  prophesied  of  men,  "  the 
works  that  I  do  shall  ye  do  also,  and  greater 
works  than  these  shall  ye  do."  He  believed  in  a 
divine  descent  for  Himself;  but  He  believed 
the  same  for  His  disciples,  *'  They  are  not 
of  this  world  even  as  I  am  not  of  this 
world."  He  said  "  the  Father  and  I  are  one  " ; 
but  He  understood  that  this  oneness  is  possible  be- 
tween men  and  God,  for  He  prayed,  "  that  they 
may  be  one  even  as  we  are."  His  sonship  might 
be  more  than  other  men's  by  His  perfect  knowl- 
edge of  the  Father,  and  His  perfect  likeness  to  the 
Father,  but  in  principle  His  sonship  is  homoge- 
neous with  man's.     "  I  am  the  vine,"  said  He, 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  MAN  55 

"ye  are  the  branches;  abide  in  me,  and  I  in  you." 
You  in  me,  I  in  you,  one  in  each  other;  there  ap- 
pears to  be  no  dividing  line;  it  is  a  single  bundle 
of  life;  human  or  divine,  either  or  both.  Hu- 
manity opens  at  its  topmost  to  take  in  Jesus;  di- 
vinity opens  at  its  lowest  to  take  in  man. 

"Draw  if  thou  canst  the  mystic  line 
Severing  rightly  His  from  thine. 
Which  is  human,  which  divine." 

Some  day  you  go  down  to  the  shore.  Your 
dingy  lies  in  a  wee  reed-fringed  inlet  of  one  of 
the  many  bays  that  indent  the  coast  of  Long  Is- 
land. You  get  into  your  boat  and  shove  off  the 
yellow  sand.  You  drop  your  oars  in  and  then 
pull  away,  away  down  the  winding  inlet,  from 
behind  the  fringe  of  reeds,  across  the  little  bar, 
over  the  rocking  waves  of  the  bay,  out  into  the 
deep,  green,  long,  low  swell  of  the  limitless  ocean. 
From  the  inlet  into  the  ocean!  And  where  did 
the  inlet  end,  and  where  did  the  ocean  begin? 
And  what  is  the  difference  between  the  water  of 
the  inlet  and  the  water  of  the  ocean?  The  same 
elements  combine  in  both;  the  same  winds  that 
blow  in  from  the  distances  sweep  over  the  sur- 
faces of  both;  the  same  tides  which  roll  in  from 
the  middle  seas  swell  the  waves  of  both.  The 
difference  is  shallow  and  unplumbed,  land-locked 
and  unlimited.     But  the  likeness  is  more  than  the 


56  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

difference,  the  likeness  of  water,  wind  and  tides 
which  bring  the  ocean  into  the  reed-fringed  inlet, 
and  carry  you  out  of  the  inlet  upon  the  bosom  of 
the  shoreless  flood.  Man  and  Jesus,  the  inlet  and 
the  ocean;  the  divine  nature  becomes  human  in 
Jesus,  the  human  nature  becomes  divine  in  Jesus. 
God  has  his  human  life  and  unveils  it  in  Jesus; 
man  has  his  divine  life  and  it  is  unveiled  in  Jesus. 
You  come  immediately  upon  this  idea  of  the 
divinity  of  man  when  you  hear  Jesus  teaching  the 
disciples  to  pray  saying  "  Our  Father  who  art  in 
heaven."  There  are  certain  scenes  which  quicken 
the  imagination.  Abraham,  his  back  upon  the  an- 
cient ancestral  home,  his  camels  bearing  him  and 
his  childless  wife  across  the  desert  to  an  unknown 
land,  his  eyes  fastened  upon  the  star-lit  sky, 
dreaming  of  himself  as  the  patriarch  of  a  new 
people,  like  those  stars  innumerable  and  like  them 
separate  from  the  world  of  men.  Columbus, 
standing  bare-browed  upon  the  deck  of  his  little 
caravel,  with  Spain  a  thousand  leagues  behind 
across  the  desolate  Atlantic,  and  gazing  at  a  thin 
blue  line  broadening  above  the  western  horizon 
to  become  at  last  a  new  world  full  of  life  and 
liberty  and  happiness  for  the  old.  Luther,  the 
rustic  monk,  in  the  hall  of  the  bishop's  palace  at 
Worms,  face  to  face  with  his  sovereign,  the  pope's 
legate  and  a  dazzling  throng  of  august  dignitaries, 
responding  as  they  adjure  him  to  recant  his  new 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  MAN  S7 

religion,  "  Here  I  stand,  I  cannot  do  otherwise, 
God  help  me ;  Amen."  Such  scenes,  because  they 
mark  crises  in  the  life  of  the  race  inflame  the  im- 
agination. 

But  that  sight  of  Jesus  and  the  fishermen  pray- 
ing together  transcends  these  and  all  other  scenes 
in  awesomeness  and  immensity  of  issue.  Here 
we  watch  the  discovery  of  a  new  people,  a  new 
world,  a  new  religion.  A  new  people  which  shall 
care  to  claim  no  forbear  but  God;  a  new  world 
which  shall  know  no  alien  nor  citizen,  but  only  man 
the  brother  of  Christ;  a  new  religion  which  shall 
know  no  elect  nor  reprobate,  but  only  man  the 
dear  child  of  the  Father  who  is  in  heaven. 

Jesus  is  alone  with  His  disciples.  There  are 
Peter  and  Andrew  his  brother;  they  are  rude, 
unlearned  Galilean  fishermen.  There  are  John 
and  James,  both  sons  of  Zebedee,  the  prosperous 
ship-owner  of  Bethsaida.  There  is  Matthew,  the 
citizen  of  populous  Capernaum,  one-time  revenue 
officer  in  the  service  of  the  accursed  Roman. 
There  is  Simon,  the  political  mal-content,  the 
fanatic  nationalist,  the  hater  of  publicans  like 
Matthew.  There  is  Philip,  a  man  whose  motto 
in  life  seems  to  be  "  seeing  is  believing."  There 
are  Bartholemew  the  mystic,  Judas  the  bigot, 
Thomas  the  skeptic,  and  Thaddeus  and  the  other 
James.  The  gamut  of  human  kind,  character  and 
condition  is  here,  the  race  in  miniature.     The  rich 


58  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

man  is  here  and  the  poor,  the  learned  and  the  un- 
lettered, the  good  and  the  evil.  They  stand  with 
bowed  heads  praying;  Jesus  leads,  they  follow, 
"  Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven."  Our  Father, 
Jesus'  and  John's,  Peter's  and  Matthew's,  Bar- 
tholomew's and  Judas';  the  Father  of  the  rich 
man  and  the  poor,  the  Father  of  the  learned  and 
the  unlettered,  the  Father  of  the  good  and  the 
evil.  All  are  brothers  in  one  family;  differences 
of  culture,  condition,  capacity  and  character  are 
like  the  differences  in  their  varied  colored  dress, 
important  for  other  relationships,  but  for  this  re- 
lationship mere  accidents. 

Beneath  the  dress  breathes  the  soul,  that  human 
life  which  is  born  "  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will 
of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God," 
and  this  soul  knits  the  twelve  and  Him  into  one 
common  brotherhood.  Evidently  if  He  is  a  Son 
of  God  they,  too,  are  sons ;  obviously  if  His  origin 
makes  Him  divine,  they  have  the  same  origin  and 
must  be  divine.  For  that  is  the  meaning  of  Fa- 
therhood and  sonship.  For  a  human  to  call  God 
*'  Father  "  what  is  that  but  to  humanize  God ;  for 
a  man  to  claim  deity  as  his  forbear  what  is  that 
but  to  divinize  man?  A  father  and  his  children 
are  shareholders  in  the  same  stock ;  if  the  father's 
shares  are  divine,  the  children's  must  be,  no  mat- 
ter what  may  be  their  holdings;  were  the  chil- 
dren's shares  human,  the  father's  are  the  same, 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  MAN  59 

though  his  holdings  are  infinite.  Once  grant 
Fatherhood,  and  there  can  be  only  one  conclusion, 
"now  are  we  children  of  God,"  and  we  must  be 
"like  Him,"  as  St  John  puts  it.  The  Lord's 
Prayer  raises  humanity  to  the  eternal  peerage. 
And  nowhere  did  Jesus  intimate  that  there  was  any 
man  excepted  from  this  high  birthright. 

The  parable  of  the  prodigal  son  puts  the  case 
explicitly.  That  story  was  told  just  to  prove  that 
a  sinner  never  ceases  to  be  a  son,  that  the  Son  of 
God  is  warranted  in  being  friends  with  publicans 
because  that  sort  of  folk  can  say  as  well  as  He, 
"  Father."  "  Both  the  Pharisees  and  scribes  mur- 
mured, saying,  This  man  receiveth  sinners,  and 
eateth  with  them.  And  He  spake  unto  them  this 
parable,  saying,  A  certain  man  had  two  sons,"  and 
the  younger  wearying  of  the  home  restraints  went 
far  away,  and  squandered  his  patrimony  in  riotous 
living.  One  morning  he  awoke  to  find  himself 
stripped  and  outcast,  something  the  world  had  no 
use  for,  except  to  make  a  swineherd.  Then  in  the 
fresh  light  of  this  new  experience,  there  surged 
again  the  far-ebbed  memory  of  his  home  and  his 
childhood,  and  this  inward  tide  swept  back  his 
penitent  heart  within  hearing  of  the  father's  voice 
and  a  revelation  of  the  father's  love,  by  which 
love  he  was  reborn  and  reinstated.  And  this  is 
how  Jesus  described  the  moment  when  the  tide 
turned,  "he  came  to  himself."     Up  to  that  mo- 


6o  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

ment  the  boy  had  been  beside  himself,  but  when 
he  came  back  to  himself,  he  found  that  inward 
self  crying  "  father."  And  Jesus  went  on  to  say 
that  the  father  saw  the  boy  while  he  was  yet  a 
great  way  off,  and  that  he  ran  and  fell  upon  his 
neck  and  kissed  him;  kissed  this  soiled,  shrunken, 
shame-faced  man,  and  said  "  my  son." 

And  the  way  Jesus  told  that  parable  gives  us  the 
right  to  infer  that  no  human  being  can  ever  lose 
the  right  to  say  "  Father,"  that  all  men  every- 
where, no  matter  how  far  gone,  are  God's  sons. 
Appearances  may  be  against  it;  but  Jesus  talked 
as  if  it  were  self-evident;  it  was  self-evident  to 
Him,  because  He  knew  "  what  was  in  man."  He 
knew  "  we  are  sons,"  as  one  apostle  put  it,  "  par- 
takers of  the  divine  nature,"  as  another  expressed 
it.  "  The  Image  of  the  invisible  God,"  as  St. 
Paul  called  Jesus,  knew  that  men  are  "  the  image 
and  glory  of  God,"  as  the  same  apostle  wrote. 

With  this  idea  of  man's  divine  descent,  Jesus 
appraised  life  as  of  incalculable  value.  No  word 
is  oftener  on  His  lips  than  "  life."  But  one  feels 
that  He  is  embarrassed  by  the  word,  that  He 
means  more  by  it  than  men  mean.  For  Him  the 
word  does  not  stand  for  vitality,  existence.  Life 
is  more  than  meat;  it  cannot  subsist  on  bread;  it 
consisteth  not  of  abundance  of  things ;  no  thing  is 
its  equivalent;  "what  shall  a  man  be  profited, 
if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world  and  forfeit  his 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  MAN  6l 

life?  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for 
his  life  ?  "  To  leave  no  doubt  in  men's  mind  that 
life  is  not  this  squalid  thing  they  think  of  when 
they  talk  about  life,  Jesus  had  another  word  which 
He  was  accustomed  to  use  with  it;  He  talked  of 
^'  eternal  life,"  meaning  not  mere  everlasting  life, 
life  that  lasts  beyond  time,  but  life  that  has  the 
quality  of  eternity,  the  timeless  quality,  the  divine 
quality;  the  eternal  life  is  the  kind  of  life  God 
has ;  God  is  its  source  and  nourishment.  And  this 
eternal  life  He  claimed  for  Himself  and  said  men 
shared  with  Him  and  God;  only  they  needed  it 
"  more  abundantly."  So  one  soul  had  infinite 
worth  to  the  Father;  He  could  not  afford  to  lose 
one  life,  no  matter  how  small,  how  far  fore- 
wandered  ;  "  See,"  said  He,  "  that  ye  despise  not 
one  of  these  little  ones ;  for  I  say  unto  you,  that  in 
heaven  their  angels  do  always  behold  the  face  of 
my  Father  who  is  in  heaven." 

Rich  as  the  shepherd  is  with  his  safe  folded 
ninety  and  nine,  he  must  seek  the  solitary  lamb 
which  has  strayed  away.  Wealthy  as  the  woman 
is  with  her  nine  coins,  she  cannot  afford  to  lose 
one,  but  must  sweep  the  house  and  do  her  utmost 
to  recover  the  one  that  rolled  away  and  was  lost. 
Maybe  the  father  has  another  boy  at  home,  and  a 
house  full  of  servants,  but  if  there  is  one  away,  he 
must  watch  and  wait  and  keep  scanning  the  hori- 
zon for  a  sight  of  him  coming  back,  and  then 


62  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

when  this  one  has  returned  there  is  the  banquet 
for  which  the  calf  has  been  fatted.  Nothing  lets 
you  into  Jesus'  value  judgment  of  life  like  that 
saying  that  at  first  sight  looks  so  unfair,  "  There 
shall  be  joy  in  heaven  over  one  sinner  that  re- 
penteth,  more  than  over  ninety  and  nine  righteous 
persons,  who  need  no  repentance;"  that  is  because 
from  His  way  of  looking  at  God  and  man,  the 
man  has  no  equivalent,  he  is  of  infinite  worth. 

But  along  with  His  appreciation  of  man's  in- 
trinsic value,  his  essential  sonship,  his  infinite 
worth,  Jesus  combines  a  sane  estimate  of  man's 
actual  condition.  Men  are  God's  children,  but 
they  are  "  evil  "  children ;  all  of  them  must  pray, 
"  forgive  us  our  debts,"  and  in  all  of  them  lurk 
"  evil  thoughts "  and  sensual  inclinations  which 
defile.  Jesus  believes  Himself  to  be  the  messen- 
ger Son  sent  to  the  brothers,  because  the  brothers 
are  "  lost " ;  they  are  lost  like  sheep  that  have  heard 
the  call  of  the  wild;  they  are  lost  like  a  coin  that 
has  dropped  out  of  circulation  and  so  ceased  of 
its  true  purpose;  they  are  lost  like  a  boy  who 
has  gone  away,  ignoring  his  Father's  rights  to 
his  service  and  affection.  And  so,  according  to 
Jesus,  man's  sonship  is  a  fact,  but  it  is  also  a 
task ;  man  is  not  only  a  son,  but  he  has  to  become 
a  son;  and  even  when  he  comes  to  himself  and 
says  **  Father,"  realizes  his  sonship,  he  is  "  yet 
afar  off."     But  (and  this  is  the  impressive  thing 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  MAN  63 

in  Jesus'  appraisement  of  human  nature)   He  be- 
lieved that  man  is  able  for  the  task. 

Jesus  dared  to  believe  that  man  could  incarnate 
the  moral  values  which  He  Himself  realized ;  they 
could  be  sons,  perfect  as  their  heavenly  Father  is 
perfect.  As  a  recent  writer  says,  "If  there  was 
anything  new  in  the  thought  of  Jesus  it  was  this." 
Jesus  believed  in  man,  in  man's  essential  affinity 
with  God,  in  man's  ability  to  repeat  His  life.  If 
He  did  not,  then  one  must  despair  of  His  sanity, 
if  not  His  honesty.  Only  on  the  belief  that  He 
believed  Himself  imitable  can  we  explain  His  treat- 
ment of  the  w^oman  of  Samaria  and  Mary  of  Mag- 
dala,  Simon  Peter  and  Zacchaeus.  Only  on  the 
belief  that  He  had  unqualified  faith  in  humanity's 
unbounded  possibilities  can  the  Beatitudes  and  the 
"  new  commandment "  be  saved  from  the  charge 
of  insincerity.  Only  on  the  belief  that  He  meant 
it  literally  when  he  said,  "  follow  me,"  can  we  con- 
tinue to  trust  Him  as  the  one  who  "  did  no  sin, 
neither  was  guile  found  in  His  mouth."  "  Follow 
me,"  He  said  to  fishmongers  and  aristocrats,  to 
publicans  and  skeptics,  nay,  it  was  the  word  He 
had  for  every  man ;  "  if  any  man  would  come 
after  me,  let  him  deny  himself  and  take  up  his 
cross  and  follow  me  " ;  and  that  word  had  only  one 
meaning,  "  where  I  am  there  shall  also  my  servant 
be."  This  fishmonger,  this  aristocrat,  this  pub- 
lican, this  skeptic,  any  man  who  can  follow  an- 


64  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

Other  must  have  the  same  capacity  in  him.  A 
fish  cannot  follow  a  bird;  a  bird  cannot  follow  a 
man;  only  like  can  follow  like.  If  Jesus  is  per- 
fect, then  His  "  follow  me  "  means  that  any  man 
can  be  perfect;  it  is  the  same  as  saying,  you  can 
be  what  I  am,  you  can  do  what  I  do,  you  were 
made  for  this,  you  are  most  yourself  when  you 
are  most  like  me. 

In  one  of  his  essays,  Emerson  has  a  striking 
passage  in  which  he  calls  attention  to  the  way  in 
which  the  machinery  of  society  adapts  itself  auto- 
matically to  the  failures  of  human  nature.  A  man 
in  the  heat  of  passion  strikes  off  a  crime,  a  thing 
which  in  his  youth  he  would  have  shuddered  at 
the  thought  of.  But  once  guilty,  and  though 
guilty  for  the  first  time,  society  is  ready  for  him, 
the  criminal;  there  are  the  police,  the  courtroom, 
the  judges,  the  prisoner's  dock,  the  sentence,  the 
jail;  they  all  deal  with  his  case  just  as  though 
they  had  been  expecting  this  man  to  do  this  par- 
ticular crime.  It  is  a  sad  commentary  upon  the 
way  in  which  we  think  of  human  nature.  We 
expect  the  break,  we  look  for  the  crash,  we  take 
it  for  granted  that  the  fall  will  come,  we  believe 
that  the  fall  is  the  natural  thing,  the  thing  this 
man  was  made  for.  We  feel  that  the  worst  we 
do  is  the  natural  thing  for  us  to  do,  the  best  is  out 
of  our  line.  We  must  go  on  at  this  low  level, 
leaping  upward  once  in  a  while  in  some  uncom- 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  MAN  65 

mon  act  of  purity  or  love,  leaping  upward  like 
some  single  wave  tossed  above  sea  level  by  the 
churning  of  some  vessel's  screw,  but  falling  back 
again  into  the  same  old,  dark,  cold  surge.  The 
upward  leap  is  an  accident,  the  bitter  level  is  the 
real  thing. 

But  the  very  opposite  of  all  this  is  the  belief 
of  Jesus.  He  is  not  surprised  at  man's  best 
moments ;  He  expects  the  act  of  purity  or  love ;  He 
counts  the  best  the  thing  we  were  made  for, 
the  w^orst  the  unnatural  thing;  He  looks  for  man 
to  be  not  the  thing  He  has  been,  but  the  better  he 
can  be;  He  says  "  be  perfect,"  and  He  knows  it  is 
possible.  Man  is  God's  son,  without  Jesus  God's 
lost  son,  but  withal  able  to  come  to  himself  and  to 
say,  ''  I  can  do  all  things  in  Christ  which  strength- 
eneth  me."     That  is  Jesus'  idea  of  man. 

He  that  hath  seen  Jesus  hath  seen  the  Father; 
he  that  hath  seen  Jesus  hath  seen  himself.  The 
first  essential  element  in  the  religion  of  Jesus  is 
the  humanity  of  God,  and  the  second  is  like  unto 
it,  and  it  is  this  the  divinity  of  man.  Two  rivers 
that  rise  thousands  of  miles  apart  and  drain  the 
watershed  of  a  nation,  meet  and  mingle  in  the 
Mississippi.  From  the  west  the  Missouri  comes. 
Far  up  in  the  Rockies'  virgin  snows  and  amid  the 
Paradise-like  beauties  of  the  Yellowstone  Park  it 
is  born.  For  three  thousand  miles  it  flows 
through    mountain    and    prairie,    an    unconfined. 


66  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

fresh  and  refreshing  stream,  to  blend  itself  at  last 
with  the  Mississippi,  and  with  it  find  the  parent 
sea.  From  the  east  the  Ohio  comes.  At  the  foot 
of  a  sooty  city  it  rises;  for  nine  hundred  miles  it 
drags  its  way  through  a  score  of  cities,  each  of 
which  pours  its  decay  into  its  already  overbur- 
dened waters.  At  last,  weary  of  its  weight  of  sedi- 
ment, the  Ohio  empties  its  waters  into  the  Mis- 
sissippi, to  find  therein  another  destiny.  Thus  the 
river  from  the  west  fulfills  itself,  and  the  river 
from  the  east  rediscovers  itself  in  the  one  central 
flood,  whose  waters  are  the  source  of  an  inex- 
haustible fertility  and  bear  great  ships  which  de- 
termine the  destinies  of  peoples. 

Two  rivers  that  rise  on  opposite  sides  of  hu- 
man experience  drain  the  race's  feeling  about 
religion.  From  the  one  side,  rising  in  the  fresh, 
simple  beginnings  of  human  life,  flows  the  stream 
of  faith,  the  sure  feeling  that  God  is  and  that  He 
is  the  source  and  satisfaction  of  life.  From  the 
other  side  of  experience,  from  our  wfetched  fail- 
ures and  our  moral  defeats,  flows  the  stream  of 
fact,  the  fact  of  depravity  and  utter  hopelessness. 
The  stream  of  faith  refreshes  and  sweetens  life; 
but  the  stream  of  fact  has  the  stain  of  evil  in  it, 
and  the  poison  of  despair;  and  both  of  these  rivers 
unite  in  one  imperial  Manhood,  whose  life  is  the 
race's  living  water,  and  whose  Spirit  holds  the 
secret    of    humanity's    destiny.     In    Jesus    Christ 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  MAN  67 

human  nature's  faith  in  God  and  human  nature's 
fact  of  despair  conflow.  In  Him  the  age-long 
feehng  after  God  is  taken  up,  verified,  enriched, 
and  at  last  united  with  its  eternal  source.  In 
Him  the  fact  of  human  nature's  despair  is  taken 
up,  dissolved,  and  then  rediscovered  by  the 
counter-fact  of  human  nature's  divinity.  In  the 
mighty  flood  of  Jesus'  teaching,  and  His  life,  man 
finds  his  God  a  Father  of  boundless,  gratuitous, 
ungrudging  love,  and  finds  himself  a  son  destined 
to  be  like  his  Father,  when  he  shall  see  Him  even 
as  He  is. 


IV 

JESUS'  IDEA  OF  RELIGION 


"  Consider  the  ravens,  that  they  sow  not,  neither  reap ; 
which  have  no  store-chamber  nor  barn;  and  God  feedeth 
them :  of  how  much  more  value  are  ye  than  the  birds !  And 
which  of  you  by  being  anxious  can  add  a  cubit  unto  the 
measure  of  his  life?  If  then  ye  are  not  able  to  do  even  that 
which  is  least,  why  are  ye  anxious  concerning  the  rest? 
Consider  the  lilies,  how  they  grow :  they  toil  not,  neither 
do  they  spin ;  yet  I  say  unto  you,  Even  Solomon  in  all 
his  glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these.  But  if  God 
doth  so  clothe  the  grass  in  the  field,  which  to-day  is,  and 
to-morrow  is  cast  into  the  oven ;  how  much  more  shall  He 
clothe  you,  O  ye  of  little  faith?  And  seek  not  ye  what  ye 
shall  eat,  and  what  ye  shall  drink,  neither  be  ye  of  doubtful 
mind.  For  all  these  things  do  the  nations  of  the  world  seek 
after;  but  your  Father  knoweth  that  ye  have  need  of  these 
things.  Yet  seek  ye  His  kingdom,  and  these  things  shall 
be  added  unto  you.  Fear  not,  little  flock;  for  it  is  your 
Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  you  the  kingdom," 

"Jesus  knowing  that  His  hour  was  come  that  He  should 
depart  out  of  this  world  unto  the  Father,  having  loved  His 
own  that  were  in  the  world.  He  loved  them  unto  the  end. 
And  Jesus,  knowing  that  the  Father  had  given  all  things 
into  His  hands,  and  that  He  came  forth  from  God  and 
goeth  unto  God,  riseth  from  supper,  and  layeth  aside  His 
garments;  and  He  took  a  towel,  and  girded  Himself.  Then 
He  poureth  water  into  the  basin,  and  began  to  wash  the 
disciples'  feet,  and  to  wipe  them  with  the  towel  wherewith 
He  was  girded.  So  when  He  had  washed  their  feet,  and 
taken  His  garments,  and  sat  down  again,  He  said  unto 
them,  Know  ye  what  I  have  done  to  you?  Ye  call  me. 
Teacher,  and.  Lord:  and  ye  say  well;  for  so  I  am.  If  I 
then,  the  Lord  and  the  Teacher,  have  washed  your  feet, 
ye  also  ought  to  wash  one  another's  feet.  For  I  have 
given  you  an  example,  that  ye  also  should  do  as  I  have  done 
to  you.  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  A  servant  is  not 
greater  than  his  lord;  neither  one  that  is  sent  greater  than 
he  that  hath  sent  him." 


IV 

JESUS'  IDEA  OF  RELIGION 

Religion  no  longer  is  called  an  invention;  it  is 
classed  with  the  elemental  instincts. 

"  As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water  brooks, 
So  panteth  my  soul  after  Thee,  O  God," 

is  not  only  sublime  poetry,  but  exact  science. 
And  religion  is  allowed  to  be  not  only  a  primary 
but  a  universal  instinct.  History  proves  that  "  all 
men  yearn  after  the  gods  " ;  "  humanity  is  incur- 
ably religious,"  as  a  great  Frenchman  expresses  it. 
One  defines  religion  at  his  own  risk.  In  this  it 
is  a  case  of  "  many  men,  many  minds."  But  this 
may  be  said  to  be  the  common  denominator  of  all 
the  definitions,  religion  is  a  conscious  relation  to 
God.  To  know  a  man's  religion  you  have  to 
know  only  the  man's  idea  of  his  relation  to  God. 
To  know  Jesus'  religion  you  have  to  know  only 
Jesus'  idea  of  God  as  "  our  Father."  But  for 
practical  operation  every  relationship  is  at  once  a 
feeling  and  an  action.  A  relationship  is  worth  as 
much  as  the  feelings  it  evokes,  and  the  actions 
which  these  feelings  impel.     A  relationship  which 

71 


^2  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

made  one  neither  hot  nor  cold,  which  never  made 
him  say  "  yes  "  or  "  no/'  or  move  hand  or  foot 
is  not  worth  while.  To  be  real  and  vital  a  rela- 
tionship must  quicken  love  or  hate,  trust  or  fear, 
must  set  a-going  speech  or  silence,  conduct  and 
character.  What  practical  difference  did  the  idea 
of  God's  Fatherhood  make  in  Jesus'  inward  and 
outward  life;  how  did  it  make  Him  feel,  what 
did  it  make  Him  do?  When  we  answer  those 
questions  we  get  Jesus'  idea  of  religion. 

The  night  before  Jesus  died  will  be  cherished 
always  for  two  equally  beautiful  and  tender  inci- 
dents which  occurred  therein.  The  one  was  the 
Last  Supper,  the  other  was  the  washing  of  the 
disciples'  feet.  Of  the  two  disciples  who  were 
with  Him  that  night  and  kept  a  record  of  what 
He  did,  St.  Matthew  saved  the  picture  of  the 
Christ  bending  forward  with  the  platter  and  the 
cup;  and  St.  John  chose  the  picture  of  the  Christ 
bending  down  with  the  basin  and  the  towel. 
Either  picture  is  characteristic  of  the  Master.  All 
His  life  He  was  bending  over  other  men's  empti- 
ness and  pain.  So  either  the  Christ  bending  for- 
ward with  the  broken  bread,  saying,  "  take,  eat,"  or 
the  Christ  bending  over  the  travel-pinched  feet  of 
the  disciples,  show  Him  as  He  was  and  loved  to  be. 

St.  John's  picture  is  especially  interesting  be- 
cause he  wrote  his  gospel  with  the  confessed  pur- 
pose of  proving  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God, 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  RELIGION  73 

and  in  this  incident  the  apostle  shows  us  how  this 
fihal  sense  makes  Jesus  feel  and  what  it  makes 
Him  do.  He  begins  the  story  with  these  striking 
words,  "  Jesus,  knowing  that  the  Father  had  given 
all  things  into  His  hands,  and  that  He  came  forth 
from  God,  and  goeth  unto  God;"  in  other  words, 
the  Father-Son  relationship  was  the  cause  of  what 
followed.  It  was  this  conscious  sonship  which 
bent  Jesus  down  till  He  knelt  at  the  feet  of  men, 
who,  in  the  fitness  of  things,  ought  to  have  been 
kneeling  before  Him  and  washing  His  feet  with 
their  tears.  We  have  said  that  a  man's  religion 
is  the  feelings  and  then  the  acts  which  result  from 
the  relationship  between  himself  and  God  as  he 
knows  Him.  What,  then,  was  the  feehng  of  this 
Man  who  knew  that  God  was  His  Father,  that 
He  came  forth  from  God  and  was  going  unto 
God? 

It  is  Good  Friday  eve.  He  and  eleven  of  His 
friends  are  gathered  in  another  friend's  guest-room 
for  a  last  tryst.  He  had  left  them  a  keepsake, 
something  to  remember  Him  by.  The  hour  is 
late.  Already  by  the  light  of  their  fitful  torches 
the  whips  have  gathered  their  pack  for  the  ugly 
deed  in  the  Garden  of  Gethsemene.  He  knows 
this ;  He  knew  "  that  His  hour  was  come  that  He 
should  depart  out  of  this  world  unto  the  Father." 
He  has  watched  the  dark  shadow  creeping  always 
nearer,  now  He  can  feel  its  chill  sweep  His  cheek. 
I 


74  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

He  has  come  to  the  moment  when  conscience 
searches  the  heart  of  the  average  man  with  fingers 
tipped  with  fire.  He  is  a  very  young  man,  with 
all  a  young  man's  love  of  living;  but  He  has  to 
give  it  up.  He  had  set  His  heart  upon  one  thing, 
and  that  one  thing  seemed  to  human  vision  to  be 
a  will-o'-the-wisp. 

And  what  is  He  doing?  Bathing  the  feet  of  a 
few  fishermen.  What  ineffable  calmness!  What 
unbroken  serenity!  Unconscious  of  any  need  in 
Himself,  He  seems  conscious  only  of  the  need  of 
the  friends  He  is  to  leave  so  soon.  With  no 
feeling  of  personal  indebtedness  to  God  or  man. 
He  is  concerned  only  to  make  His  comrades  feel 
that  He  knew  about  their  debt  and  was  going  to 
help  them  make  up  their  deficit.  With  the  su- 
preme court  ready  to  vote  Him  a  failure  and  give 
Him  a  felon's  death,  He  knew  Himself  bound  to 
succeed,  and  reckoned  His  death  to  be  the  birth- 
pangs  of  a  new  humanity.  He  knows  no  inward 
unrest;  He  feels  Himself  living  a  kind  of  life  on 
which  death  has  no  lien;  let  death  come,  when  or 
how,  the  Father's  hand  will  be  on  everything  in  it, 
as  it  has  been  on  everything  in  life.  The  world 
rests  in  the  Father ;  it  is  His  house ;  and  He  is  the 
Father's  Son;  and  the  Father  cares,  why  should 
He ?  "I  go  unto  the  Father.  Peace  I  leave  with 
you ;  my  peace  I  give  unto  you :  not  as  the  world 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  RELIGION  75 

giveth,  give  I  unto  you.  Let  not  your  heart  be 
troubled,  neither  let  it  be  fearful." 

Such  quiet,  such  peace,  the  world  has  seen 
nothing  just  like  it.  He  is  in  the  world  as  a  child 
in  a  Father's  house,  free  from  care,  full  of  trust. 
And  that  night  is  all  of  a  piece  with  the  way  He 
had  always  lived.  He  never  worried,  never 
fretted,  never  feared  the  future  or  any  change. 
Long  ago  He  had  told  the  disciples,  "  Consider 
the  ravens,  that  they  sow  not,  neither  reap ;  which 
have  no  store-chamber  nor  barn ;  and  God  f eedeth 
them:  of  how  much  more  value  are  ye  than  the 
birds!  And  which  of  you  by  being  anxious  can 
add  a  cubit  unto  the  measure  of  his  life?  If  then 
ye  are  not  able  to  do  even  that  which  is  least,  why 
are  ye  anxious  concerning  the  rest  ?  Consider  the 
lilies  of  the  field,  how  they  grow:  they  toil  not, 
neither  do  they  spin;  yet  I  say  unto  you,  Even 
Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one 
of  these.  But  if  God  doth  so  clothe  the  grass  in 
the  field,  which  to-day  is,  and  to-morrow  is  cast 
into  the  oven ;  how  much  more  shall  He  clothe  you, 
O  ye  of  little  faith?" 

Here  meets  us  one  of  the  surprising  traits  of  the 
gospel.  Jesus  seems  so  merciful  toward  sins  that 
we  excoriate.  He  makes  friends  with  a  penitent 
adulteress;  He  can  hardly  abandon  the  treacher- 
ous Judas.     But  there  are  two  sins  He  paints  jet 


76  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

black;  the  first  is  the  sin  of  conceit;  the  second  is 
the  sin  of  anxiety.  Not  the  adulteress  nor  the  be- 
trayer seems  so  hopelessly  far  gone  as  the  man 
who  knows  it  all  and  the  man  who  lives  as  if  God 
were  dead.  He  talks  about  worry  as  if  it  were 
a  person,  a  soldier  in  armor,  a  tyrant,  nay,  as  if  it 
were  Satan  himself,  something  to  be  fought  to  the 
finish.  When  a  man  sets  his  heart  upon  a  mere 
thing,  something  to  eat,  or  wear  or  live  in,  when 
he  trembles  at  the  thought  of  losing  it,  when  he 
kills  himself  to  keep  it,  Jesus  says  that  man  is  a 
heathen,  ''  for  after  all  these  things  do  the  Gen- 
tiles seek,"  these  alien  races  who  know  not  God. 
To  fret  about  a  dinner,  or  a  bit  of  lace  or  fur- 
nishing is  an  outrage  against  God ;  God,  who  dines 
the  raven,  weaves  the  gossamer  for  the  lilies  and 
shelters  the  sparrow  of  the  street. 

Care  is  a  denial  of  God;  it  is  blank  atheism. 
From  Jesus'  point  of  view  the  opposite  of  faith  is 
not  skepticism,  which  is  doubt  of  the  prevailing 
orthodoxy;  but  faith's  antinomy  is  fear  of  the 
future,  fret  about  the  vicissitudes  of  living. 
"  Why  are  ye  fearful  ?  "  He  called  to  the  despairing 
disciples,  as  they  anticipated  shipwreck  on  the  Sea 
of  Galilee,  "  Have  ye  not  yet  faith?  "  "  O  ye  of 
little  faith,  why  reason  ye  among  yourselves?" 
said  He  one  day,  when  He  found  them  fretting 
over  an  empty  bread-basket.  Faith  to  Jesus  meant 
the  quiet  assurance  that  a  man  rests  for  now  and 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  RELIGION  yy 

forever  in  the  hollow  of  the  Father's  hand.  So 
He  talked  and  so  He  died.  The  dying  was  all 
new  to  Him,  but  it  was  the  Father's  will;  the  Fa- 
ther was  here  as  He  had  been  in  every  circum- 
stance of  His  career,  and  so  "  Father,  into  Thy 
hands  I  commend  my  spirit." 

We  marvel  at  His  tranquillity,  His  steadfast- 
ness, His  unruffled  acceptance  of  the  world's  hot 
and  cold,  sweet  and  bitter,  smooth  and  rough. 
He  knew  "  that  He  came  forth  from  God  and  was 
going  unto  God,"  the  world  was  but  the  Father's 
house,  and  He  a  child  in  it,  a  child  free  from  care, 
a  child  full  of  trust.  This  was  the  feeling  Jesus 
got  from  His  idea  of  God's  Fatherhood. 

And  now  what  were  the  actions  of  this  Man,  who 
knew  that  He  came  forth  from  God  and  was  go- 
ing to  God,  what  did  this  filial  relationship  make 
Him  do  ?  "  Jesus,  knowing  that  the  Father  had 
given  all  things  into  His  hands,  and  that  He  came 
forth  from  God  and  goeth  unto  God,  riseth  from 
supper,  and  layeth  aside  His  garments;  and  He 
took  a  towel  and  girded  Himself.  Then  He  pour- 
eth  water  into  the  basin  and  began  to  wash  the 
disciples'  feet,  and  to  wipe  them  with  the  towel 
wherewith  He  was  girded."  Did  they  know  what 
He  had  done  unto  them?  They  called  Him 
Teacher,  and.  Lord ;  and  He  was ;  and  the  Teacher 
and  Lord  was  washing  their  feet.  They  could 
never   forget   that;   service   was   the   crown   and 


/ 


78  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

glory  of  sonship;  the  way  to  get  up  was  to  get 
down;  one  must  stoop  to  conquer;  belief  in  God's 
Fatherhood  involved  belief  in  man's  brotherhood. 
Nothing  that  He  could  have  said  about  it  could 
have  cut  that  truth  so  deep  in  their  hearts  as  the 
feeling  of  the  Lord's  hands  on  their  feet.  They 
must  live  in  the  world  as  children  in  a  Father's 
house;  but  they  must  remember  that  the  Father's 
house  is  full  of  children.  That  w^as  the  one  truth 
He  had  set  most  store  by. 

Fresh  from  His  self-discovery  as  the  Father's 
messenger  Son  sent  to  the  lost  children,  He  began 
His  search  with  the  promise  of  good  news  for  the 
poor,  release  for  the  captives,  recovering  of  sight 
for  the  blind,  and  liberty  for  them  that  are  bruised. 
And  how  well  He  fulfilled  His  promise  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  He  got  the  nickname  of  the 
"  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners."  In  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount  He  defined  the  perfect  life  as 
loving  one's  enemies  and  praying  for  those  who 
persecute,  and  He  kept  pace  with  that  ideal  down 
to  the  end.  One  once  asked  Him  the  way  to  the 
perfect  life,  and  He  gave  two  rules,  love  of  God, 
and  love  of  neighbor  as  one's  self,  and  then  He 
told  the  story  of  the  Good  Samaritan  to  make  it 
clear  that  the  second  rule  was  as  important  as  the 
first.  And  everybody  knows  that  the  Good  Sa- 
maritan is  only  another  name  for  Jesus. 

It  gives  one  pause  to  see  how  little  Jesus  says 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  RELIGION  79 

about  loving  God.  He  does  indeed  say  that  the 
first  commandment  is  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul, 
and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength." 
But  apart  from  this  there  is  no  recorded  discourse 
upon  the  theme  of  love  to  God,  and  there  is  not 
one  parable  to  illustrate  it.  When  He  talks  about 
love  it  seems  that  it  is  love  toward  men  He  thinks 
most  about,  desires  most  to  produce.  Of  the 
Beatitudes,  two  concern  our  attitude  toward  God, 
humility  and  pureness  of  heart;  one  concerns  our 
attitude  toward  Himself,  when  we  are  reviled  for 
His  sake ;  but  five  concern  our  attitude  toward  our 
fellow  men.  Love  toward  God  expressed  in  a 
temple  offering  is  not  to  be  thought  of  until  a 
man  is  on  loving  terms  with  his  neighbor,  "  If 
therefore  thou  art  offering  thy  gift  at  the  altar, 
and  there  rememberest  that  thy  brother  hath 
aught  against  thee,  leave  there  thy  gift  before  the 
altar,  and  go  thy  way,  first  be  reconciled  to  thy 
brother,  and  then  come  and  offer  thy  gift." 

The  redeeming  power  of  charity.  He  teaches  in 
the  parable  of  the  unjust  steward;  inhumanity  is 
the  unpardonable  sin  is  the  lesson  of  the  story  of 
Dives  and  Lazarus;  and  the  parables  of  the  lost 
sheep,  the  lost  coin  and  the  lost  boy,  spoken  in  de- 
fence of  His  own  great  love  for  the  sinners, 
prove  that  love  is  of  God,  for  God  is  love.  The 
proof  of  friendship  with  Jesus  is  love  one  to  an- 


8o  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

Other.  Indeed,  if  one  loves  his  fellows  Jesus  ac- 
cepts it  as  an  equivalent  for  the  love  of  Himself. 
So  He  taught  in  the  parable  of  the  last  judg- 
ment. He  said  at  that  great  assize  men  would 
be  divided  as  when  a  shepherd  puts  his  sheep  on 
one  side  and  his  goats  on  another.  Some  would 
have  this  said  to  them,  "  Come,  ye  blessed  of  my 
Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world;"  others  would  hear 
the  awful  words,  "  Depart  from  me,  ye  cursed, 
into  the  eternal  fire  which  is  prepared  for  the  devil 
and  his  angels."  And  the  reason  for  this  separa- 
tion is  a  remarkable  one;  the  question  asked  is 
not.  Did  you  love  God?  but,  Did  you  love  me? 
Those  represented  as  entering  into  eternal  felicity 
are  told  that  they  are  so  favored  because  they  gave 
Jesus  food  when  He  was  hungry,  drink  when  He 
was  thirsty,  clothes  when  He  was  naked,  they 
healed  Him  when  He  was  sick,  visited  Him  when 
He  was  in  prison.  The  righteous  astonished  to 
hear  this,  tell  Jesus  that  they  had  never  seen  Him, 
never  heard  of  Him,  to  which  He  responds,  "No, 
you  may  not  have  seen  me  personally,  may  not 
have  heard  of  me,  but  in  doing  these  things  for 
the  little  ones,  the  weak  ones,  the  obscure  men 
and  women,  you  were  really  doing  them  for  me." 
Those  who  are  represented  as  shut  out  from  God's 
presence  are  told  that  they  are  condemned  because 
they  never  fed  Jesus,  never  gave  Him  to  drink. 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  RELIGION  8 1 

never  clothed  Him,  healed  Him,  visited  Him  in 
prison.  To  which  these  reply  that  these  are  the 
very  things  they  did  do  for  Jesus  Himself. 
"  Nay,"  the  Christ  answers,  "  to  me  personally 
you  may  have  showed  mercy,  but  inasmuch  as  ye 
did  it  not  unto  one  of  these  least,  ye  did  it  not 
unto  me."  The  obvious  lesson  of  this  parable  is 
that  Jesus  set  more  store  by  loving  others  than  by 
loving  Him,  that  pure  religion  is  for  practical 
purposes  the  daily  exercise  of  neighborly  love  and 
pity. 

One  may  object  that  such  a  view  makes  religion 
just  mere  morality,  a  thing  which  can  do  without 
God;  that  Buddhism  can  produce  it,  or  Islam  or 
Confucianism.  The  answer  to  this  contention  is 
that  for  centuries  these  religions  have  had  wor- 
shippers, but  they  have  failed  to  generate  this  love- 
spirit.  When  the  Chinese  Commissioners  visited 
Chicago  they  were  shown  its  railways,  its  ware- 
houses, its  factories,  its  hospitals,  Hull  House  and 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association.  "  What 
impressed  you  most  ?  "someone  asked  these  Con- 
fucianists.  'The  hospitals,  Hull  House  and  the 
Young:  Men's  Christian  Association,"  was  the  an- 
swer.  Railways,  factories  and  warehouses  were 
common  things  in  China;  they  were  not  so  large 
nor  so  many  as  those  in  Chicago,  to  be  sure;  but 
these  things  China  did  not  have,  hospitals  where 
sick  folks  were  healed  without  pay,  Hull  House 


82  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

where  the  overborne  were  befriended  for  love's 
sake,  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
where  young  men  of  culture  and  social  standing 
gave  their  time  and  strength  to  be  big  brothers 
to  fellows  who  were  lonely  and  forlorn.  These 
things  Confucianism  had  not  given  China;  these 
things  Jesus'  idea  of  God's  fatherhood  had  given 
Chicago;  these  things  were  only  where  the  son- 
ship  which  informed  the  soul  of  Jesus  informed 
the  souls  of  men  who  were  called  by  His  adorable 
name.  And  so  Jesus'  kind  of  love  and  pity  cannot 
do  without  God,  it  growls  out  of  the  idea  that  God 
is  our  Father;  but  "the  love  of  one's  neighbor  is 
the  only  practical  proof  on  earth  of  that  love  of 
God  which  is  strong  in  humility." 

Believing  that  so  strongly,  one  does  not  wonder 
that  Jesus  should  have  spent  His  last  evening  with 
the  disciples  in  making  them  feel  that  He  counted 
service  the  one  thing  worth  while.  He  had  many 
things  to  say  unto  them,  many  truths  of  God  and 
destiny  which  He  might  unveil  before  their  vision, 
many  riddles  of  existence  which  he  might  have 
solved  while  they  w^aited ;  but  there  was  little  time 
for  talk ;  there  was  time  for  one  act ;  words  might 
be  forgotten,  such  an  act  would  live  while  memory 
hung  together.  Very  deliberately  He  rose  from 
the  table,  folded  up  the  seamless  cloak,  girded  Him- 
self with  the  tow^el,  filled  a  basin  with  water,  and 
before  any  one  realized  what  He  was  doing  He  was 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  RELIGION  83 

down  on  His  knees  bathing  their  feet.  Then 
there  was  a  brief  prayer  in  the  same  theme,  the 
Jesus  theme  as  musicians  might  say,  the  theme  of 
brotherly  service,  and  He  opened  the  door  and 
went  out  to  write  the  same  theme  in  His  own 
blood  and  hang  it  on  a  cross. 

Jesus  lived  in  the  world  as  in  a  Father's  house ; 
but  He  remembered  that  the  house  was  full  of 
children.  The  sense  of  His  Father  as  our  Father 
made  Him  not  only  the  trustful  child,  but  also  the 
loving  brother.  The  feeling  His  idea  of  God  bred 
in  Him  was  childlike  trust;  the  acts  His  idea  of 
God  brought  out  were  deeds  of  brotherly  love. 
To  trust  God  as  the  Father  who  is  doing  and  will 
do  the  best  for  one,  to  do  the  best  for  men  as  the 
children  of  the  Father  that  is  Jesus'  idea  of  re- 
ligion. To  believe  that  God  is  one's  Father  and 
to  live  in  the  world  as  in  the  Father's  house,  that 
is  free  from  care,  to  believe  that  God  is  the  Fa- 
ther of  all  men  and  to  live  in  the  world  as  in  the 
Father's  house  full  of  children,  that  is  full  of  love, 
that  is  the  religion  of  Jesus. 


V 
JESUS'  IDEA  OF  SIN 


**  I  have  found  my  sheep  which  was  lost." 
"  I  have  found  the  piece  which  I  had  lost." 

"  This  my  son  was  dead,  and  is  alive  again ;  he  was  lost, 
and  is  found." 

"The  Son  of  Man  came  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which 
was  lost." 


V 

JESUS'  IDEA  OF  SIN 

In  his  studies  of  the  "  Varieties  of  Religious 
Experience,"  Prof.  William  James  says,  "  There 
^is  a  certain  uniform  deliverance  in  which  religions 
all  appear  to  meet.  It  consists  of  two  parts: — 
first,  an  uneasiness;  and  second,  its  solution.  The 
uneasiness,  reduced  to  its  simplest  terms,  is  a 
sense  that  there  is  something  wrong  about  us  as 
we  naturally  stand.  The  solution  is  a  sense  that 
we  are  saved  from  the  wrongness  by  making 
proper  connection  with  the  higher  powers." 
There  is  a  universal  feeling  that  there  is  something 
wrong  with  us;  so  then  a  real  religion  must  take 
account  of  this  wrongness;  and  since  it  is  the  men 
who  are  most  right  who  most  feel  the  wrongness, 
we  may  expect  that  the  matter  will  bulk  large  in 
the  teaching  of  Jesus. 

Jesus  does  not  talk  much  about  life's  wrong- 
ness in  the  abstract.  His  practise  is  that  of  the 
physician,  diagnosis  and  cure.  But  when  He  does 
stop  in  the  midst  of  His  practise  to  talk  about  it. 
He  has  one  name  for  this  wrongness;  He  calls  it 

87 


88  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

being  "  lost."  *'  The  Son  of  Man  is  come  to 
seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost,"  He  says. 
And  when  the  ethical  aristocrats  of  His  day  com- 
plained about  His  friendship  with  the  ''  sinners," 
He  described  these  "  sinners  "  as  "  lost  "  things, 
telling  three  stories,  one  of  a  lost  sheep,  another 
of  a  lost  coin,  a  third  of  a  lost  boy.  If  we  want 
to  find  out  what  is  wrong  with  life,  what  was 
Jesus'  idea  of  sin,  we  have  to  understand  what  He 
meant  by  being  "  lost."  The  more  we  study  the 
fifteenth  chapter  of  what  somebody  calls  "  the 
most  beautiful  book  in  the  world,"  in  which  Jesus 
gives  His  definition  of  being  lost,  the  clearer  we 
see  that  the  three  parables  are  not  three  separate 
stories,  but  three  little  chapters  of  one  story  of 
the  soul  of  man.  They  are  related  like  the  three 
primary  colors  which  mingle  in  white  light.  The 
story  of  the  lost  sheep  is  like  the  red,  the  story  of 
the  lost  coin  Hke  the  blue,  and  the  story  of  the  lost 
boy  most  luminous,  nearest  the  white  truth,  is  the 
yellow.  The  three  stories  read  together,  red, 
blue  and  yellow,  throw  the  white  light  on  the  great 
fact  of  sin. 

A  shepherd  had  a  flock  of  an  hundred  sheep; 
one  wandered  away;  and  the  shepherd  left  the 
ninety  and  nine  in  the  fold  and  went  hunting  for 
the  one  that  was  lost.  And  when  he  had  found 
it,  he  laid  it  across  his  shoulders  and  trudging 
home  called  to  his  friends,  "  Rejoice  with  me,  for 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  SIN  89 

I  have  found  my  sheep  which  was  lost."  A 
woman  had  ten  pieces  of  money;  she  lost  one; 
forthwith  she  lighted  a  lamp,  swept  the  house, 
took  no  rest  until  the  coin  lay  once  again  in  her 
hand,  and  then  she  had  a  celebration  with  her 
friends,  because,  as  she  put  it,  ''  I  have  found  the 
piece  which  I  had  lost."  A  man  had  two  sons. 
One  day  the  younger  of  them  said  to  his  father, 
"  Father,  give  me  the  portion  of  thy  substance 
that  falleth  to  me,"  and  getting  it,  he  went  far 
away  from  home  and  squandered  his  fortune  in 
folly.  At  last,  stripped  and  starving,  he  was 
compelled  to  hire  out  as  a  swineherd.  So  situ- 
ated, the  boy  came  to  his  senses,  and  memory  con- 
jured up  the  picture  of  the  old  home,  with  its 
abundance  even  for  the  servants.  And  he  re- 
solved to  go  back  home,  fling  himself  upon  his 
father's  pity,  and  beg  just  for  a  servant's  berth. 
And  all  the  time  of  his  absence  his  father  must 
have  been  scanning  the  horizon  for  a  sight  of  the 
boy,  for  one  day,  after  the  son  started  home,  the 
father  spied  him  afar  off,  and  he  ran  and  fell  on 
his  neck  and  kissed  him,  and  before  the  prodigal 
could  get  to  the  point  of  asking  to  be  hired  as  a 
servant,  the  servants  at  the  father's  bidding  were 
serving  him,  doing  everything  to  make  the  boy 
feel  that  he  belonged  in  the  home  as  a  son  and 
nothing  less.  And  they  had  a  banquet  that  night, 
and  great  joy,  and  this  was  the  reason  the  father 


90  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

gave  for  it,  *'  for  this,  my  son  was  dead,  and  is 
alive  again;  he  was  lost,  and  is  found." 

There  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  meaning 
Jesus  meant  to  convey  by  these  parables.  Each 
one  of  them  moves  between  two  poles,  human  life 
as  it  is,  and  human  life  as  it  ought  to  be.  Human 
life  as  it  is  is  the  sheep  in  the  wilderness,  the  coin 
in  the  corner,  the  boy  in  the  pig-stye.  And  hu- 
man life  as  it  ought  to  be  is  the  sheep  restored  to 
the  fold,  the  coin  in  the  housewife's  hand,  the  boy 
enriched  with  his  father's  favor.  "  Lost "  is  the 
word  that  describes  life  as  it  is;  "  found"  is  the 
word  that  describes  life  as  it  ought  to  be. 

What  is  a  lost  thing?  We  never  call  the  big- 
horn sheep  of  the  Rockies  lost  sheep,  because  they 
are  wild  sheep,  and  the  mountains  are  the  place 
where  wild  sheep  belong.  But  if  one  lamb  strays 
away  from  the  ranch  and  up  into  the  fastnesses 
of  the  mountains,  we  call  him  a  lost  sheep,  because 
he  has  heard  and  obeyed  the  call  of  the  wild,  has 
gone  back  to  the  lower  life  of  the  wilderness.  We 
never  speak  of  the  gold  and  silver  in  the  quartz 
of  Alaska  as  lost  money,  because  it  is  not  money, 
but  just  raw  metal  which  no  one  has  used.  But 
if  you  should  lose  your  purse  full  of  gold  or  silver, 
you  would  advertise  for  the  money  you  had  lost; 
lost,  because  it  is  stamped  metal  made  to  be  a 
medium  of  exchange,  and  now  fallen  out  of  use. 
Among  the  gang  of  street  gamins  who  gathered 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  SIN  9 1 

around  the  great  newspaper  houses  about  mid- 
night last  night  there  were  a  lot  of  little  chaps 
whom  no  one  ever  thinks  of  as  lost  boys,  because 
they  have  no  home,  no  other  relations  than  their 
ragged  comrades.  But  if  in  some  way  your  little 
boy  had  been  among  them  last  night,  the  police 
would  have  taken  notice  of  a  lost  boy;  lost,  be- 
cause he  was  away  from  his  relations.  And  so  a 
lost  thing  is  a  thing  which  has  become  wild, 
dropped  out  of  use,  got  out  of  its  natural  relations. 
And  Jesus  says  men  are  lost,  living  in  their  lower 
life,  not  fulfilling  their  true  purpose,  self-assertive, 
out  of  their  true  relationships. 

What  has  experience  taught  us  about  human 
nature  ?  "  It  is  an  easy  thing  to  make  up  one's 
mind,"  said  Grizel.  "  It's  easy,"  said  Tommy, 
"  to  you  that  have  just  one  mind,  but  if  you  had 
as  many  minds  as  I  have, — "  The  most  of  us 
feel  with  Tommy.  We  have  two  minds,  the  one 
thinks  one  way,  the  other  thinks  the  other.  One 
part  of  us  says  "  yes,"  the  other  part  says  "  no." 
The  good  man  feels  coiled  up  in  his  heart  the 
same  springs  which,  unwinding,  stain  the  crim- 
inal's hand  red.  The  criminal  has  moments  when 
he  is  impelled  to  do  the  same  things  which  have 
become  a  habit  in  the  white  soul.  Good  and  bad 
feel  these  same  opposing  compulsions  in  their 
bosom,  watching  each  other.  Dr.  Jekyl  and  Mr. 
Hyde  each  has  a  first  cousin  living  with  each  one 


92  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

of  US.  Every  one  has  this  double  Hfe,  the  higher 
and  lower.  St.  Paul's  words  need  no  explanation 
for  experience,  "  The  good  which  I  would  I  do 
not;  but  the  evil  which  I  would  not,  that  I  prac- 
tise. For  I  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after  the  in- 
ward man;  but  I  see  a  different  law  in  my  members, 
warring  against  the  law  of  my  mind,  and  bringing 
me  into  captivity  under  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in 
my  members." 

And  what  experience  knows,  science  certifies. 
It  says  that  human  nature  is  double.  We  have  an 
animal  life  and  another  life,  an  outward  self  and 
an  inward.  "  The  brain  of  the  chimpanzee,"  says 
Dr.  W.  H.  Thompson,  "  as  far  as  structure  goes, 
presents  us  with  not  only  every  lobe,  but  with 
every  convolution  of  the  human  brain."  "  When 
fully  grown,"  says  another  scientist,  "  there  is  al- 
most nothing  in  man's  anatomy  to  distinguish 
him  from  his  nearest  allies  among  other  animals. 
Almost  bone  for  bone,  nerve  for  nerve,  muscle  for 
muscle,  he  is  the  same."  A  human's  appetites  are 
the  same  as  a  pig's,  only  more  aesthetic;  what  he 
calls  competition  is  just  a  bull-dog's  combative- 
ness  refined;  and  his  acquisitiveness  is  the  bee's 
instinct  at  work  in  a  steel,  fire-proof  hive  of  in- 
dustry. A  human  is  a  perfect  animal,  and  more. 
There  is  in  man  an  inward  self  which  science  says 
puts  a  gulf  between  man  and  the  animals,  an  in- 
ward self  which  makes  the  most  ignorant  savage 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  SIN  93 

more  different  from  a  horse,  than  a  horse  is  from 
an  oyster.  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  writes  about  the 
"soul"  as  something  different  from  the  ''body," 
something  different,  too,  from  the  thing  which 
keeps  an  animal  alive;  he  says  man  has  a  body, 
and  man  is  a  soul.  A  horse  is  bred  for  body; 
weight,  pace  and  cleanness  of  limb  count  in  him; 
but  a  man  is  valued  not  for  the  body,  the  muscle, 
form  and  features.  This  is  what  we  desire  in  a 
man,  the  man  who  is  to  be  our  comrade,  our  legis- 
lator, our  teacher,  our  physician,  a  keen  sense  of 
"ought"  and  "ought  not,"  a  great  will,  a  deep 
reverence  for  law,  a  consciousness  of  a  relation- 
ship which  reaches  outward  as  far  as  humanity 
goes,  upward  as  far  as  infinity.  It  is  character  we 
seek  to  culture  in  man;  the  inward,  not  the  out- 
ward we  set  store  by  in  human  nature.  As  Amiel 
suggests,  "  man  begins  his  career  as  a  tamer  of 
wild  beasts  and  these  wild  beasts  are  his  passions." 
And  now,  see  how  the  parables  fit.  Given  a 
man  who  lives  all  his  life  for  the  lusts  of  the 
minute,  for  fine  food,  a  rich  wardrobe,  a  great 
house ;  in  mere  getting  and  spending  he  lays  waste 
his  powers ;  his  ideal  is  to  come  to  a  time  when  he 
can  say  to  himself,  thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up 
for  many  years,  take  thine  ease,  eat,  drink  and  be 
merry.  What  is  this  man  doing  but  living  for  the 
herbs  and  the  grass  of  things,  the  things  which 
to-day  are  and  to-morrow  are  cast  into  the  oven? 


94  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

What  figure  fits  him  so  well  as  a  sheep  which  has 
heard  the  call  of  the  wild,  gone  back  into  the 
wilderness  life  with  its  primal  compulsions  and 
its  animal  instincts?  Given  a  man  whose  aim 
in  life  is  to  win  public  applause,  and  so  to  have 
power;  to  be  masterful,  to  be  called  influential,  to 
have  people  nudge  one  another  when  he  passes 
in  the  street.  This  man  wants  to  sit  at  a  desk, 
touch  a  button  and  see  men  jump  at  his  ring;  all 
he  cares  for  is  to  say  **  go,"  and  have  the  satis- 
faction of  being  obeyed,  to  have  his  way,  to  make 
his  will  law.  To  him  the  world  is  just  a  shop  full 
of  tools  cunningly  constructed  to  serve  his  ends, 
to  minister  to  him,  to  be  used  by  him.  What 
figure  fits  this  man  better  than  a  coin  which  has 
ceased  to  be  of  use,  a  thing  which  has  dropped 
from  its  true  purpose;  he  is  taking  others'  time 
and  strength  instead  of  using  his  time  and 
strength  in  the  service  of  others;  he  is  costing  the 
world  labor  instead  of  spending  himself  that  the 
world  may  have  what  it  needs.  Given  a  man  who 
never  comes  up  out  of  the  basement  of  his  being, 
who  never  takes  a  thought  for  the  furnishing  of 
the  upper  stories  of  life  where  lives  his  soul,  who 
is  busy  with  his  own  affairs,  so  busy  that  he  never 
hears  the  call  of  an  Unseen  Central  giving  him  con- 
nection with  a  great  outside  world-need  of  him 
and  his.  What  is  this  man  but  a  son  squandering 
his   divine   share   of   life,    wasting   his   real   self, 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  SIN  95 

playing  the  fool  with  his  birthright,  and  depriving 
the  family  of  the  help  of  his  companionship.  It 
is  this  reversion  to  the  animalism  in  us,  this  use- 
lessness  in  the  v^orld  struggle  to  develop  soul,  this 
denial  of  our  divine  heredity  which  is  the  tap-root 
of  the  wTongness  in  human  nature.  Self-absorp- 
tion, lovelessness,  the  higher-self  suicide,  that  is 
Jesus'  idea  of  what  is  the  matter  with  man.  To 
live  like  a  higher  kind  of  animal  and  nothing 
more;  to  live  to  be  served  rather  than  to  serve; 
to  live  as  if  God  were  dead,  that,  according  to 
Jesus,  is  sin. 

Jesus  says  our  wrongness  has  a  three-fold 
cause;  He  says  we  go  wrong  from  heredity,  from 
circumstance,  from  our  own  volition.  He  allows 
that  human  nature  starts  with  a  handicap,  a 
legacy  of  self-absorption  which  we  get  at  birth. 
We  are  like  sheep  that  go  astray;  like  sheep  in 
whose  very  blood  is  the  zvander-liist.  We  are  not 
simply  individuals,  we  are  children  of  parents, 
and  behind  the  parents,  far  back  in  the  dim  dis- 
tance, is  the  brute  ancestry,  whose  low  bequest  is 
not  yet  sloughed  off.  The  lower  life  had  a  long 
start  before  the  higher  was  awakened,  and  it  is 
strong  yet;  it  is  not  all  domesticated,  not  all 
tamed.  All  this  the  Master  seems  to  appreciate. 
And  He  sees  another  fact;  how,  even  with  a  fair 
start,  things  and  men  around  us  sometimes  help 
us  to  badness,  give  us  a  shove  off,  make  the  down- 


96  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

hill  road  all  the  easier.  We  are  like  a  coin  which 
gets  lost  by  no  act  of  its  own ;  it  falls  from  a  care- 
less hand,  and  is  given  the  start  which  sends  it 
rolling  off  into  the  dust.  Not  always  is  the  crown 
jewel  deliberately  thrown  away,  sometimes  it  is 
snatched  from  the  head  by  the  hand  of  some  moral 
brigand.  This  baneful  possibility  of  circum- 
stances the  fair  Christ  seems  to  allow  as  one  of 
the  causes  of  the  wrongness  in  human  nature. 

But  He  does  not  stop  with  making  man  a 
sheep;  had  Jesus  told  us  only  the  parable  of  the 
lost  sheep,  we  might  have  questioned  His  optim- 
ism. He  does  not  finish  with  the  parable  of  the 
lost  piece  of  money;  had  Jesus  stopped  there  we 
would  have  called  Him  a  fatalist. 

"If  my  body  come  from  brutes,  tho'  somewhat  finer  than 

their  own, 
I  am  heir,  and  this  my  kingdom.     Shall  the  royal  voice  be 

mute  ?  " 

You  cannot  jam  back  into  heredity  and  en- 
vironment all  the  impulses  which  brought  about 
the  moral  failure.  Something  more  needs  to  be 
said.  There  is  a  personal  will  at  the  center  of 
life,  and  our  very  sense  of  fairness  challenges 
every  reference  of  life's  wrongness  to  any  source 
which  does  not  take  account  of  this  personal  ini- 
tiative. The  Principal  of  Birmingham  says, 
"  The  distinctive  character  of  man  is  that  he  has 
a  sense  of  responsibility  for  his  acts,  having  ac- 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  SIN  97 

quired  the  power  of  choosing  between  good  and 
evil,  with  freedom  to  obey  one  motive  rather  than 
another."  There  is  something  in  the  wrongness 
which  man  himself  makes  up  out  of  whole  cloth. 
Maybe  we  are  an  organ,  and  the  pipes  and  action 
were  set  up  without  our  choosing;  maybe  the  reg- 
isters were  limited  by  a  builder  whom  we  did  not 
employ.  But  we  sit  on  the  organ  bench,  and  our 
fingers  touch  the  keys,  and  there  is  enough  in  the 
instrument  to  make  sweet  music,  aye,  great  music. 
Palestrina  wrote  "  The  Strife  is  O'er  "  long  be- 
fore the  days  of  electric  actions,  tilting  couplers 
and  echo  attachments.  With  our  eyes  wide  open, 
we  have  listened  to  the  call  of  the  wild,  we  have 
misused  our  manhood,  we  have  used  our  wills. 

A  young  man  decides  to  be  a  better  man ;  he  be- 
gins the  effort  from  the  outside  and  works  inward. 
First,  there  are  the  long  habits  to  be  wrestled  with ; 
he  will  not  drink;  he  will  not  swear;  he  will  not 
be  unchaste.  And  hard  that  fight  is,  for  his  fa- 
ther before  him  drank,  it  was  his  father  he  first 
heard  swear,  it  is  the  father's  passion  which  runs 
like  fire  through  his  veins.  Almost  he  despairs; 
it  looks  like  a  losing  battle,  but  he  keeps  on.  He 
finds  the  same  enemies  in  his  circumstances;  the 
business  he  is  in  is  full  of  temptations,  he  gives 
up  his  business;  his  associations  keep  him  in  the 
bad  atmosphere,  he  breaks  away  from  the  old 
comrades ;  the  reading  he  has  loved  fans  the  flame 


98  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

of  the  red  passion,  the  old  books  are  burned.  So 
far,  so  good;  he  has  met  his  hereditation,  he  has 
faced  his  conditions,  still  the  old  habit  stays  by 
him,  the  old  impulse  has  steam,  the  old  appetite's 
fires  will  not  be  put  out.  Then  it  is  the  young 
fighter  in  this  moral  arena  sees  the  fact  of  life; 
he  sees  that  at  the  mysterious  center  of  his  being 
there  is  he  himself,  he  himself  who  not  only  thinks, 
and  feels  and  does  the  wrong,  but  is  wrong.  Fa- 
cing that  fact  solemnly,  seriously,  the  young  man 
has  come  up  to  the  point  where  real  victory  be- 
gins. "  /  have  sinned,"  he  cries ;  "  the  fault  lies 
with  myself."  And  with  this  sight  of  self,  this 
resolution  to  be  his  higher  self,  he  makes  the  dis- 
covery that  Jesus  meant  every  lost  life  to  make  in 
these  parables,  that  God  will  take  care  of  the 
heredity,  God  will  take  care  of  the  circumstances ; 
the  shepherd  will  find  the  sheep,  the  woman  will 
find  the  coin,  the  son  must  come  to  himself,  must 
cry,  "  Father,  I  have  sinned."  This  self-discov- 
ery, this  sense  of  unworthy  sonship  brings  peace 
and  strength  and  safety. 

This  is  sin  as  Jesus  sees  it,  to  live  the  lower 
life,  to  live  to  be  served  rather  than  to  serve,  to 
live  as  if  God  were  dead.  And  this  is  safety,  to 
come  to  one's  self  and  own  one's  sonship,  saying, 
"  Father,  I  have  sinned." 


VI 

JESUS'  IDEA  OF  SALVATION 


"  He  entered  and  was  passing  through  Jericho.  And  be- 
hold, a  man  called  by  name  Zacchaeus ;  and  he  was  a  chief 
publican,  and  he  was  rich.  And  he  sought  to  see  Jesus  who 
He  was ;  and  could  not  for  the  crowd,  because  he  was  little 
of  stature.  And  he  ran  on  before,  and  climbed  up  into  a 
sycamore  tree  to  see  him :  for  He  was  to  pass  that  way. 
And  when  Jesus  came  to  the  place.  He  looked  up,  and  said 
unto  him,  Zacchaeus,  make  haste,  and  come  down;  for  to- 
day I  must  abide  at  thy  house.  And  he  made  haste,  and 
came  down,  and  received  Him  joyfully.  And  when  they  saw 
it,  they  all  murmured,  saying.  He  is  gone  in  to  lodge  with 
a  man  that  is  a  sinner.  And  Zacchaeus  stood,  and  said 
unto  the  Lord,  Behold,  Lord,  the  half  of  my  goods  I  give 
to  the  poor;  and  if  I  have  wrongfully  exacted  aught  of 
any  man,  I  restore  fourfold.  And  Jesus  said  unto  him.  To- 
day is  salvation  come  to  this  house,  forasmuch  as  he  also 
is  a  son  of  Abraham.  For  the  Son  of  Man  came  to  seek 
and  to  save  that  which  was  lost." 


VI 

JESUS'  IDEA  OF  SALVATION 

If  there  is  any  word  of  religion  we  ought  to 
know  about  it  is  the  word  ''  salvation."  In  the 
vocabulary  of  religion  no  word  bulks  so  large. 
Christianity  has  no  patent  on  it.  Professor  James 
has  shown  us  how  it  is  part  of  the  "  uniform  de- 
liverance in  which  religions  all  appear  to  meet." 
No  sect  of  Christianity  can  claim  it  as  peculiar  to 
its  dialect.  Paul  preached  it  and  Peter,  Augus- 
tine and  Pelagius,  Luther  and  Loyola,  Calvin  and 
Arminius,  Spurgeon  and  Martineau,  Brooks  and 
Channing.  The  monks  and  parish  clergy  of  the 
Greek  Church,  the  popes  and  priests  of  the  Roman 
Church,  and  the  pastors  and  teachers  of  the 
Protestant  Church  have  proclaimed  it  in  all  times 
and  in  all  places.  All  religions,  all  sects  acknowl- 
edge the  need  and  fact  of  salvation;  the  thing 
needs  no  argument;  it  is  taken  for  granted.  We 
differ  as  to  that  from  which  or  for  which  we  are 
saved,  but  the  saving  —  about  this  the  vote  is 
unanimous. 

In  Christian  preaching  there  has  been  a  singular 

lOI 


102  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

unity  about  the  message  of  salvation.  This  may 
not  seem  obvious  at  first  sight.  In  the  faint  Hght 
of  early  morning  the  Priscilla  threads  her  way 
dov^n  the  East  River.  The  young  man  on  his 
first  visit  to  the  city,  rising  betimes,  quits  his 
stateroom  to  go  out  on  deck.  There,  like  a  great 
cobweb  spun  between  the  two  boroughs,  he  sees 
the  beautiful  Brooklyn  Bridge.  He  admires  the 
graceful  superstructure  hanging  between  earth 
and  sky;  he  wonders  at  the  great  ships  which, 
sailing  underneath,  are  dwarfed  into  insignifi- 
cance; he  tries  to  imagine  the  vast  throng  which 
in  a  single  day  is  poured  back  and  forth  between 
the  two  islands;  but  he  overlooks  the  most  won- 
derful fact  of  all  —  the  enduring  foundations 
which  the  Bridge  itself  feels  as  it  throbs  and 
sways  beneath  its  awful  responsibility.  To  find 
these  one  must  trace  the  span  to  the  water's  edge 
and  pierce  the  flood.  There,  out  of  sight,  under 
the  seething  waters,  resting  on  the  bosom  of  the 
earth,  are  mighty  tiers  of  basal  masonry,  cemented 
by  human  skill  and  sacrifice,  which  hold  aloft  the 
giant  columns  that  make  possible  so  much  of  use- 
fulness and  imposing  beauty.  So  it  is  the  Church's 
superstructure,  the  high  beauty  of  its  worship,  the 
shifting  panorama  of  doctrine  and  creed  which 
have  held  the  eye,  amazed  the  mind  or  caused 
vague  sensations  of  fear  for  its  future;  but  the 
Church   itself   has   felt  beneath   all   this   the  un- 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  SALVATION  103 

shaken  fundamental,  the  need  and  fact  of  salva- 
tion through  Jesus  Christ  the  Lord. 

This  unit  of  truth  may  be  divided  into  four 
parts.  The  %st  is  the  reality  of  sin.  Every- 
where we  find  sin.  No  man  is  all  that  he  ought  to 
be;  every  one  follows  the  call  of  the  wild;  every 
one  likes  to  be  served  rather  than  to  serve;  every 
one  sometimes  lives  as  if  God  were  dead.  There 
is  a  feeling  of  moral  nausea;  if  one  does  not  feel 
it,  he  knows  it  ought  to  be  there.  Kipling's  Mac- 
intosh had  burned  his  brain  up  with  the  drink,  had 
fallen  so  low  that  it  seemed  as  if  just  a  whiff 
would  bowl  him  over  the  line  that  separates  the 
human  from  the  brute;  yet  here  is  what  he  said 
when  he  was  dying,  "  I  was  drunk,  filthily  drunk. 
I,  who  am  the  son  of  a  man  with  whom  you  have 
no  concern,  I,  who  was  once  fellow  of  a  college 
whose  buttery  hatch  you  have  not  seen,  I  was 
loathesomely  drunk.  But  consider  how  lightly  I 
am  touched.  It  is  nothing  to  me,  less  than  noth- 
ing. For  I  do  not  even  feel  the  headache  which 
should  be  my  portion.  Now,  in  a  higher  life,  how 
ghastly  would  have  been  my  punishment,  how  bit- 
ter my  repentance.  On  the  soul  which  I  have  lost 
and  on  the  conscience  which  I  have  killed,  I  tell 
you  that  I  cannot  feel."  He  could  not  feel,  but 
he  knezv.  This  is  the  first  bitter  fact,  we  know 
there  "  is  something  wrong  with  us  as  we  naturally 
stand."     This  is  the  first  part  of  the  unit  of  sal- 


I04  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

vation.  And  this  is  the  second  part,  the  universe 
is  not  all  bad.  God  is  in  His  world  and  God  is 
good,  and  God  owns  the  world;  not  a  sparrow 
falls  on  the  ground  without  Him.  The  wrong- 
ness  makes  it  no  less  God's  world  than  if  it  were 
perfect.  He  still  owns  it  and  claims  it  and  seeks 
to  perfect  it.  This  is  the  second  fact,  "  God  so 
loved  the  world,  that  He  gave  His  only-begotten 
Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  Him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  eternal  life."  This  is  the  second 
equal  part  of  the  fact  of  salvation.  And  this  is 
the  third  part,  Jesus  came,  and  Jesus  lived  so 
much  like  God  that  since  then  men  could  imagine 
no  better  God  than  He  and  so  called  Him  God. 
And  Jesus  died;  and  by  His  death  men  saw  that 
all  His  life  had  been  a  sacrifice,  a  self-giving,  a 
giving  of  His  godlike  strength  to  men  to  take  the 
place  of  their  weakness,  a  giving  of  His  purity  to 
them  to  take  the  place  of  their  sin.  And  wherever 
the  story  of  this  life-long  sacrifice  went,  men  put 
out  the  fires  on  the  altars  where  they  had  been  of- 
fering blood  sacrifices,  thinking  thus  to  appease  an 
angry  Deity;  and  they  said  God  asks  only  to  be 
loved  and  obeyed  as  Christ  loved  and  obeyed.  This 
is  the  third  fact,  Jesus  came  God's  messenger  Son 
sent  to  find  the  lost  children.  This  is  the  third 
equal  part  of  the  fact  of  salvation.  And  this  is 
the  fourth  part,  by  coming  to  God  as  we  under- 
stand Him  in  Jesus,  the  mind  of  Jesus  becomes 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  SALVATION  105 

our  mind,  His  spirit  becomes  our  spirit  and  we 
are  born  anew;  we  are  made  like  men  without  a 
past,  men  with  only  a  present  and  a  future,  a 
future  radiant  with  an  immortal  hope.  This  is 
the  fourth  fact,  men  become  Christlike  lovers  and 
doers  of  the  right.  This  is  the  fourth  equal  part 
of  the  fact  of  salvation. 

These  are  the  four  equal  parts  of  the  unit  of  the 
Christian  evangel  of  salvation  —  Sin ;  the  God 
of  the  loving  heart;  the  Christ,  God's  messenger 
Son  sent  to  recover  the  lost  children;  the  re-birth 
of  Christlike  lovers  and  doers  of  the  right.  No 
one  of  these  parts  is  the  whole  evangel ;  the  whole 
is  the  sum  of  the  four  equal  parts.  And  it  is  the 
whole  evangel  which  the  Church  has  preached  and 
is  preaching,  the  evangel  which  the  priests  and 
prophets  when  they  are  at  their  best,  when  they 
forget  themselves,  when  they  remember  their  liv- 
ing Lord,  when  they  face  the  men  who  need  to 
be  saved,  lift  themselves  up  and  sing  and  preach. 
This  is  the  Christian  faith  in  salvation,  the  faith 
not  of  one  part  but  of  the  whole;  this  is  the  fact 
of  salvation,  the  fact  not  of  some  sect  but  of 
Christendom;  this  is  the  practical  belief  not  of 
Catholicism  alone,  nor  of  Protestantism,  not  of 
Trinitarianism  nor  of  Unitarianism ;  not  of  Cal- 
vinism nor  of  Wesleyanism;  not  of  conservative 
nor  of  liberal;  not  of  old  theology  nor  of  new 
theology;  but  it  is  the  practical  ecumenical  belief. 


Io6  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

for  ''  Faithful  is  the  saying  and  worthy  of  all 
acceptation,  that  Jesus  Christ  came  into  the  world 
to  save  sinners." 

So  much  for  the  unit  of  belief;  it  is  not  obvious 
because  men  will  forget  that  the  parts  are  equal, 
and  only  the  sum  of  the  parts  makes  the  whole. 
The  priest  or  the  prophet  has  taken  one  part  and 
multiplied  it  by  his  personal  preference  till  it  seems 
to  him  as  if  the  part  were  as  big  as  the  whole. 
One  takes  the  fact  of  sin,  another  the  fact  of  God, 
another  the  fact  of  Christ,  another  the  fact  of 
the  re-birth,  and  he  emphasizes  this  part  until  by 
the  over-emphasis  it  grows  in  his  estimation  and 
others'  beyond  its  fair  proportion  and  seems  to 
equal  the  unit.  It  is  easy  to  make  one-fourth 
look  bigger  that  it  is.  You  have  only  to  multiply 
numerator  and  denominator  by  two.  Ask  any 
child  which  he  would  rather  have,  one  quarter  or 
two  eighths  and  he  will  select  the  latter  fraction. 
And  we,  children  that  we  are  about  truth,  double 
our  part  till  we  think  it  twice  as  big  as  it  is,  cer- 
tainly larger  than  the  same  equal  part  given  to 
another. 

This,  indeed,  is  what  makes  the  seeming  dif- 
ferences between  us.  One  part  or  another  of 
the  unit  truth  appeals  to  us;  it  is  the  part  we 
see  clearest,  the  part  that  suits  our  mental  make- 
up, temperament,  experience.  And  suiting  best 
our  individual  need  or  taste  we  cherish  it,  fill  our 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  SALVATION  I07 

thought  with  it,  see  all  other  things  in  terms  of 
it,  stake  our  life  upon  it,  and  try  to  force  our 
brothers  with  different  mentalities,  other  tem- 
peraments, other  experiences  to  see  and  think  and 
feel  as  we.  And  when  they  will  not,  what  is  there 
to  do  —  such  children  we  are  —  we  call  one  an- 
other "  heretic "  and  go  off  and  pray  by  our- 
selves. It  is  not  the  big  unit  reality  of  salvation 
we  differ  about,  it  is  about  the  equal  parts  into 
which  the  unit  is  divided.  We  may  deny  this  un- 
ity when  we  are  in  our  controversial  moods;  but 
when  we  are  most  deeply  religious,  when  we  re- 
call how  men  have  been  and  are  being  saved 
everywhere  Jesus  is  lifted  up,  our  denials  are 
dumb,  and  we  know  ourselves  one  in  the  gospel  of 
salvation  through  Jesus  Christ. 

But  what  is  the  thing  itself?  What  did  Jesus 
mean  when  He  said  He  had  come  to  seek  and  to 
save  the  lost?  What  for  instance  was  in  His 
mind  when  he  said  to  Zacchaeus,  "  To-day  is 
salvation  come  to  this  house." 

In  Jericho  there  was  no  such  social  leper  as 
Zacchaeus.  He  was  head  of  the  Roman  revenue 
office.  The  Roman  tax-collectors  were  not  sal- 
aried men.  The  office  was  farmed  out  to  the  high- 
est bidder.  Then  the  man  who  got  the  job  set 
the  tax-rate.  Of  course  his  rate  covered  his  price 
plus  his  profits;  he  had  to  make  something.  It 
was  not  that  that  hurt  Jericho  half  so  much  as  to 


I08  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

think  that  Zacchaeus  was  a  "  son  of  Abraham." 
A  Jew  serving  as  henchman  for  Rome!  That 
proved  that  Zacchaeus  had  the  yeast  of  treason 
in  him.  So  Jericho  treated  him  as  a  contagious 
person;  when  he  entered  the  temple  some  Phari- 
see would  say,  "  God  I  thank  Thee  that  I  am  not 
as  this  publican."  And  here  were  Jericho's  arch- 
Shylock  and  Jesus  hand  in  hand.  Of  course  peo- 
ple talked.  It  was  a  public  scandal.  It  came 
about  this  way.  Zacchaeus  heard  how  the  great 
Rabbi  had  made  another  publican  one  of  his  dis- 
ciples. The  action  w^as  so  out  of  the  common 
that  Zacchaeus  was  set  on  getting  a  sight  of  this 
friend  of  his  friends.  There  was  a  great  crowd 
in  the  street  waiting  for  Jesus.  Zacchaeus  being 
a  little  man  was  hustled  to  one  side  and  could  not 
see  a  thing.  But  up  street  there  was  a  tree,  and 
in  a  twinkling  he  had  climbed  it,  and  from  his 
leafy  perch  he  was  taking  a  long  look  at  that 
wonderful  face.  Suddenly  Jesus  looked  up,  spied 
the  man,  saw  the  meaning  of  the  situation  and 
called  out,  "  Zacchaeus,  make  haste,  and  come 
down;  for  to-day  I  must  abide  at  thy  house." 
Zacchaeus  came  down  and  the  two  men  went 
home  together.  Only  one  incident  of  the  Mas- 
ter's visit  to  that  home  has  been  kept  for  us.  No 
one  thought  it  worth  while  to  tell  what  led  up  to 
it.  Here  is  the  whole  story;  when  the  two  were 
indoors,     sometime,     Zacchaeus     said,     "  Behold, 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  SALVATION  109 

Lord,  the  half  of  my  goods  I  give  to  the  poor; 
and  if  I  have  wrongfully  exacted  aught  of  any 
man,  I  restore  fourfold.  And  Jesus  said  unto 
him.  To-day  is  salvation  come  to  this  house,  for- 
asmuch as  he  also  is  a  son  of  Abraham.  For 
the  Son  of  Man  came  to  seek  and  to  save  that 
which  was  lost." 

It  must  be  evident  that  whatever  Jesus  meant 
by  salvation  He  meant  something  which  may  come 
to  a  man  to-day,  in  this  world.     "  To-day  is  sal- 
vation come."     The  tense  is  present.     Salvation 
is  here;  it  is  not  something  to  be  received  there. 
It  is  ante-mortem;  not  post-mortem.     The  thing 
comes   immediately;   it   is   a   possession-  for   this 
world  not  to  be  waited  for  until  one  has  reached 
another  world.     Jesus  put  the  matter  in  the  same 
way  to  the  unfortunate   girl  who  came  to   Him 
in  Simon's  house,  and  to  the  blind  beggar,  "  thy 
faith  hath  saved  thee/'  the  Master  said  to  both 
of    them.     So    Jesus'    idea    of    this    unit    of    re- 
ligious experience  is  that  it  begins  to-day,  not  the 
day  after  a  man  dies.     It  is  not  the  same  as  being 
insured  for  heaven,  not  the  same  as  being  insured 
against  hell.     It  is  not  just  assurance  of  future 
reward,   it  is  recovery   from  something,   restora- 
tion to  something  here  and  now.     Whatever  hap- 
pened to  Zacchaeus,  happened  that  day  in  Jericho. 
What  did   happen  to  Zacchaeus?     He  was  con- 
missioner  of  taxes   for  the   Roman   g-overnment. 


no  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

That  stamped  that  Jew  as  a  reprobate;  the  world 
was  against  him;  when  his  countrymen  passed 
him  in  the  streets  they  drew  their  skirts  about 
themselves  as  if  he  had  the  plague;  they  made  him 
live  for  himself.  Excommunication  he  answered 
with  extortion,  social  ostracism  he  matched  with 
official  brigandage.  His  work  centered  in  graft; 
his  heart  centered  in  hate;  his  life  centered  in 
self.  This  man  of  self  was  the  one  who  "  stood 
and  said";  there  is  a  touch  in  the  original  lan- 
guage which  does  not  come  out  in  the  English. 
The  word  translated  "  stood  "  shows  a  man  with 
tense  muscles,  and  set  jaws,  taking  a  deep  breath 
as  he  turns  over  a  new  leaf.  He  stood  thus  and 
said,  "  Behold,  Lord,  the  half  of  my  goods,  my 
capital,  I  give  to  the  poor ;  and  if,  as  I  know  to  be 
the  case,  I  have  wrongfully  exacted  aught  of  any 
man  I  restore  fourfold." 

A  bigger  thing  was  happening  here  than  shows 
on  the  surface.  The  extreme  penalty  the  Hebrew 
law^  provided  for  theft  was  fourfold  restitution; 
that  is,  the  criminal  was  compelled  to  restore  to 
the  plaintiff  four  times  the  value  of  the  stolen 
goods ;  but  this  extreme  penalty  was  imposed  only 
upon  that  most  detestable  of  all  thieves,  the  mali- 
cious depredator  who  out  of  spite  wantonly  de- 
stroys what  he  has  burglarized.  For  the  thief  who 
was  caught  with  the  goods  on  his  person  the  pen- 
alty was  double  the  value  of  the  loot.     But  if  the 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  SALVATION  III 

guilty  man  confessed  and  voluntarily  offered  to 
make  amends,  the  law  let  him  off  with  a  refund  of 
the  principal  and  twenty  per  cent.  Now  it  was  the 
last  penalty  which  fitted  Zacchaeus'  case.  No 
one  had  accused  him  of  theft;  upon  his  own  mo- 
tion he  pleaded  guilty;  he  was  his  own  judge  and 
imposed  his  own  sentence,  and  the  sentence  was, 
four  hundred  per  cent,  the  extreme  penalty  re- 
served for  the  worst  sort  of  villain;  and  more 
than  this,  after  he  had  made  amends,  the  half  of 
the  residue  would  go  to  the  poor.  The  law,  had 
he  confessed  to  the  Sanhedrin  would  have  been 
satisfied  had  Zacchaeus  said,  "  If  I  have  wrong- 
fully exacted  aught  of  any  man  I  restore  what  I 
took  and  a  fifth  more";  but  said  the  publican, 
"  Lord,  four  hundred  per  cent  I  will  give  to  every 
man  I  have  plundered,  and  the  rest  shall  be  used 
for  the  needy." 

Here  w^as  a  great  confession.  In  the  strict  in- 
terpretation of  the  law  he  had  plundered  no  one; 
Rome  gave  Zacchaeus  the  right  to  make  all  he 
could.  But,  standing  in  the  presence  of  the  great 
Rabbi  whose  life  was  full  of  utter  kindness,  look- 
ing into  the  candid  eyes  of  the  Friend  of  publicans 
and  sinners,  he  saw  himself  against  that  white 
background  and  he  saw  himself  dead  black.  The 
petty  thieving  and  graft  in  contrast  with  the  pa- 
tient pity  and  boundless  self-forgetfulness  of  Jesus 
burned  into  his  soul  a  loathing  of  self.     He  saw 


112  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

himself  with  Christ's  eyes,  He  judged  himself 
with  Christ's  conscience,  he  hated  himself  with 
Christ's  hatred  of  sin.  No  mere  principal  and 
a  fifth  could  fit  his  case  as  Zacchaeus  now  judged 
it;  nothing  but  the  extremest  penalty  could  sat- 
isfy his  conscience.  This  is  what  happened  to 
Zacchaeus;  he  saw  himself,  what  he  was  and 
what  he  ought  to  be;  he  called  his  old  self  by  its 
proper  name,  and  facing  right  about  he  reached 
out  for  the  self  he  had  not  been,  but  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Christ  knew  that  he  must  be.  He  was 
saved,  saved,  from  the  wrath  of  God  ?  saved  from 
the  fear  of  future  punishment?  maybe;  but  cer- 
tainly, obviously  he  was  saved  from  himself;  from 
his  old  lust  of  getting,  from  his  old  vengeful  feel- 
ings of  hate,  from  the  guilt  of  the  selfishness  which 
cut  him  off  from  his  fellows  and  his  God.  And 
so  salvation  is  not  rescue  from  a  future  hell,  it  is 
rescue  from  a  present  self. 

More  than  all  this;  the  man  is  not  only 
saved  from  self,  but  he  is  saved  for  service. 
"  Fourfold  restitution,"  said  Zacchaeus,  ''  for 
every  one  I  have  plundered;  and  the  half  of  my 
capital  I  give  to  the  poor."  And  Jesus  said,  "  To- 
day is  salvation  come  to  this  house."  The  change 
in  the  man  is  radical,  absolute.  He  is  thrown  off 
his  center.  An  hour  ago  his  work  centered  in 
graft,  now  it  centered  in  giving;  his  heart  cen- 
tered in  hate,  now  it  centered  in  charity;  his  life 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  SALVATION  II3 

centered  in  self,  now  it  centered  in  others.  From 
living  to  wrong,  he  began  living  to  right,  to  right 
not  only  those  he  had  wronged  but  those  whom 
others  had  wronged.  His  lower  nature  surren- 
dered to  his  higher,  the  grinder  of  the  face  of  the 
poor  became  the  care-taker  of  the  life  of  the  op- 
pressed; the  moral  anarchist  became  the  loyal 
subject  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  where  the  law 
is  boundless,  ungrudging,  gratuitous  love.  This 
is  what  salvation  meant  to  Zacchaeus,  something 
immediate,  something  which  concerned  character, 
something  which  concerned  his  fellow  men^  It 
meant  immediate  rescue  from  the  slavery  of  the 
self,  immediate  subjection  to  the  mastery  of  love. 
In  a  word  salvation  for  this  publican  was  son- 
ship,  simple  trust  in  a  Father's  forgiveness,  child- 
like solicitude  for  the  welfare  of  the  other  chil- 
dren. 

It  is  interesting  to  discover  that  the  word  "  sal- 
vation "  as  first  used  by  Jesus  did  not  have  a  dis- 
tinctly religious  meaning.  He  was  used  to  us- 
ing it  about  the  folks  He  healed  of  bodily  sick- 
ness. "  Daughter "  said  the  Master  to  the  in- 
valid woman  who  pressed  through  the  throng 
to  touch  the  hem  of  His  garment,  "  be  of  good 
comfort,  thy  faith  hath  made  thee  w^hole."  And 
it  is  written  in  St.  Mark's  gospel  "  They  laid  the 
sick  in  the  marketplaces,  and  besought  Him  that 
they  might  touch  if  it  were  but  the  border  of  His 


114  ^^-S  M/A^D  OF  CHRIST 

garment ;  and  as  many  as  touched  Him  were  made 
whole."  "  Made  whole  "  in  these  verses  translates 
the  same  Greek  word  as  "  saved."  Saved  folks 
were  folks  who  were  made  whole,  filled  ftill  of 
health,  fulfillng  their  purpose.  Up  to  this  day, 
Zacchaeus  had  been  like  a  sick  man,  just  a  frag- 
ment of  a  man,  a  man  who  was  able  to  use  only 
a  part  of  himself;  just  as  a  sick  man  is  a  man  who 
cannot  use  his  eyes,  or  his  limbs,  or  his  head,  or 
whatever  part  of  him  is  afflicted.  When  the  sick 
man  is  made  whole  he  lives  through  all  his  being; 
he  no  longer  uses  only  a  portion  of  his  body; 
every  organ  functions  perfectly.  Zacchaeus'  con- 
science was  diseased;  his  love  organ  had  never 
functioned.  When  Jesus  touched  him  that 
day,  his  conscience  began  to  work,  his  love 
organ  began  to  function,  and  with  the  con- 
science in  perfect  health,  and  the  love  in  him 
claiming  those  who  had  need  of  him,  the  pub- 
lican began  to  live  through  and  through  all 
his  manhood ;  henceforth  no  part  was  diseased,  no 
organ  was  atrophied;  he  was  a  whole  man. 

This  then  is  Jesus'  idea  of  salvation : —  it  is  not 
a  matter  of  the  future,  it  concerns  the  present ;  it  is 
not  rescue  from  a  future  hell,  but  rescue  from  a 
present  self;  it  is  not  rescue  for  a  future  heaven, 
it  is  rescue  for  a  present  service.  Salvation  is  liv- 
ing as  a  son  through  all  one's  being;  salvation  is 
living  as  a  soul  for  other  souls. 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  SALVATION  II5 

There  remains  but  one  question  and  the  answer 
to  it  is  very  simple.  What  saved  Zacchaeus? 
Jesus  and  he  got  together,  and  Zacchaeus  sur- 
rendered to  Jesus'  mastery.  The  picture  of  how 
Jesus  saves  is  always  with  us  in  the  way  men  save 
one  another.  The  physician  saves  a  life;  that  is, 
he  comes  to  the  sick  one  day  after  day;  day  after 
day  he  gives  the  sick  one  hope,  courage,  knowl- 
edge, skill,  medicine,  in  short  he  gives  the  sick 
one  himself,  for  the  hope  and  the  courage,  the 
knowledge  and  the  skill  and  the  medicine  are  really 
the  physician's  spirit;  then  in  turn  the  sick  one 
gives  the  physician  obedience,  and  through  the 
patient's  obedience,  the  physician's  spirit  passes 
over  into  the  patient  and  he  is  made  whole.  Obe- 
dience is  the  organ  of  life.  Through  obedience 
all  the  life  we  have  comes  to  us.  It  was  obedi- 
ence to  the  physician  which  saved  the  physical  life 
when  he  found  you  the  day  of  the  accident  unable 
to  use  yourself;  it  was  obedience  to  the  teacher 
which  saved  your  intellectual  life  when  school 
found  you  as  a  child  using  only  a  part  of  your 
intellectuality.  It  is  obedience  to  the  Master 
which  saves  the  soul  life  from  dying  down  with 
animalism,  mis-use  and  indifference.  This  is  how 
Jesus  saves  a  man.  On  the  white  screen  of  His 
life  a  man  sees  his  real  life  —  what  he  is  and  what 
he  can  be.  By  His  pitying  love  for  man  He 
makes  the  man  hate  what  he  is  and  reach  out  to 


Il6  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

what  he  can  be.  By  a  man's  obedience  to  Him, 
Jesus  goes  into  tlie  man's  inward  Hfe  and  the  man 
is  saved  from  what  he  is  for  what  he  can  be. 


VII 
JESUS'  IDEA  OF  PRAYER 


"  Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven,  Hallowed  be  Thy  name. 
Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done,  as  in  heaven,  so  on 
earth.  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread.  And  forgive  us 
our  debts,  as  we  also  have  forgiven  our  debtors.  And  bring 
us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  the  evil  one.  For 
Thine  is  the  kingdom,  and  the  power,  and  the  glory,  for- 
ever.   Amen." 


VII 

JESUS'  IDEA  OF  PRAYER 

Every  man  prays  sometime;  he  cannot  help  it. 
"  Out  of  the  deeps  "  do  we  cry  "  O  God."  In  one 
of  the  Psalms  there  are  four  cartoons;  four  men 
are  seen,  each  one  of  them  has  been  driven  into 
a  pocket  from  which  there  is  no  escape.  The  first 
is  a  man  bewildered  by  the  riddle  of  existence; 
he  beats  about  in  the  dust  of  doubt  like  a  caravan 
gripped  in  a  sand-storm;  there  is  no  way  nor 
water ;  "  his  soul  faints  in  him,  then  he  cries  unto 
Jehovah  in  his  trouble."  The  next  is  a  man  in  the 
clutch  of  disease;  he  lies  helpless  as  if  his  hmbs 
were  bound  round  with  hoops  of  steel ;  "  there  is 
none  to  help,  then  he  cries  unto  Jehovah  in  his 
trouble."  The  third  is  a  man  who  has  played  the 
fool  with  his  manhood ;  the  tide  of  poison  is  ris- 
ing over  his  heart ;  "  he  draws  near  unto  the  gates 
of  death,  then  he  cries  unto  Jehovah  in  his 
trouble."  The  last  is  a  captain  of  industry ;  he  is 
doing  business  in  great  waters ;  but  the  waters  have 
seized  his  ship,  and  there  is  no  voice  from  the 
shore,  no  vessel  to  stand  by ;  "  he  is  at  his  wits' 
119 


I20  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

end,  then  he  cries  unto  Jehovah  in  his  trouble." 
Four  men,  one  facing  doubt,  another  disease,  an- 
other death,  another  disaster,  and  each  time  it  is 
the  same  story,  out  of  the  deeps  he  cries  "  O 
God  " ;  in  other  words  he  prays.  The  easy-going 
skeptic  swinging  along  the  familiar  way  of  the 
usual  suddenly  steps  off  into  the  unexpected,  and 
in  spite  of  himself,  the  soul  in  him  lays  hold  of 
the  Soul  of  the  universe.  When  we  are  most  our- 
selves we  pray;  it  is  the  humanest  act  of  life. 

"  What  are  men  better  than  sheep  or  goats 
That  nourish  a  blind  life  within  the  brain, 
If,  knowing  God,  they  lift  not  hands  of  prayer." 

Religion  might  be  defined  as  morality  plus 
prayer.  Morality  is  the  recognition  of  a  relation- 
ship between  man  and  man.  Religion  is  the  rec- 
ognition of  a  relationship  between  man  and  God. 
Prayer  is  the  expression  of  the  Godward  practice 
of  religion ;  morality  is  the  expression  of  the  man- 
ward  practice  of  religion.  Religion  is  sheer  mor- 
ality until  there  is  a  vital  act  in  which  a  man  comes 
into  touch  with  the  "  Power  not  ourselves  which 
makes  for  righteousness."  Morality  becomes  re- 
ligion when  it  feels  that  the  relation  between  man 
and  man  draws  its  reason  out  of  the  relation  be- 
tween man  and  God.  Of  no  function  of  the  spirit- 
ual life  does  Jesus  speak  more  simply  than  of 
prayer;  no  movement  of  the  inward  life  does 
He  Himself  illustrate  more  beautifully  than  that 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  PRAYER  121 

"  mystery 
Where  God-in-man  is  one  with  man-in-God." 

The  silences  of  a  great  teacher  are  as  significant 
as  His  speech.  When  we  review  Jesus'  words 
about  prayer  we  are  struck  with  a  singular  omis- 
sion, He  says  little  or  nothing  about  prayer  as  a 
duty.  He  does  not  argue,  He  proceeds.  The 
physical  director  wastes  time  if  he  makes  a  dis- 
sertation on  the  duty  of  breathing.  The  breath- 
ing will  be  done  and  it  will  be  done  more 
and  better  without  being  made  one  of  the  require- 
ments for  gymnastic  work.  And  so  the  great 
spiritual  director  takes  something  for  granted. 
If  His  class  is  to  grow  souls,  the  spiritual  dia- 
phragms may  be  expected  to  move  without  a 
''  must."  This  omission  of  a  rule  requiring 
prayer  is  all  the  more  significant  because  a  rule 
would  have  been  the  first  thing  a  rabbi  of  Jesus' 
day  would  have  given  his  disciples.  The  subject 
of  prayer  was  a  profound  study  with  the  religious 
specialists.  Praying  was  an  art  to  be  acquired 
by  long  practice;  and  efficiency  could  be  acquired 
only  by  nice  and  punctilious  performance  of  ste- 
reotyped forms.  The  number  of  prayers  for  each 
day,  and  the  times  and  the  verbiage  were  exactly 
prescribed;  variation  was  prohibited  and  the  ex- 
tempore v/as  proscribed.  The  notion  of  the  age 
was  that  God  required  prayers  as  a  king  requires 
taxes.     If  one  defaulted  in  prayers  he  ran  a  risk 


122  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

with  heaven  analogous  to  the  risk  he  would  run 
with  the  publican  if  he  defaulted  with  his  taxes. 
When  a  man  said  his  prayers  his  accounts  with 
God  were  squared;  if  he  said  more  than  was  re- 
quired he  became  a  favorite  at  the  divine  court. 
To  bribe  God  was  as  good  form  and  as  expedient 
as  to  bribe  the  government.  But  Jesus  could  not 
say  prayers ;  **  do  not  babble  as  the  heathen  do," 
said  He,  "  for  they  think  they  shall  be  heard  for 
their  much  speaking."  He  deliberately  ignored, 
sometimes  even  purposely  violated  the  systematic. 
For  Him  prayer  was  something  natural,  spon- 
taneous, filial ;  it  was  in  the  category  with  a  child's 
kiss;  to  make  rules  for  the  one  were  as  absurd  as 
to  make  rules  for  the  other. 

Everything  that  the  Master  said  about  prayer 
is  implied  in  that  great  prayer  He  gave  His 
friends  when  they  asked  Him  to  teach  them  how 
to  pray.  "  Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven," 
its  foreword  holds  His  total  idea  of  prayer, 
prayer's  motive,  method  and  matter.  Of  His 
prayers  which  have  been  saved  for  us  all  begin  in 
the  same  way,  "  Father."  And  so  prayer  reduced 
to  its  simpest  terms  is  just  the  Father  and  a  son 
getting  together  to  confer  about  mutual  interests. 
Mutual  interests,  for  it  goes  without  the  say- 
ing that  the  Father  is  interested  in  what  concerns 
the  son,  and  the  son  is  or  should  be  interested  in 
what  concerns  the  Father.     But  there  is  the  rub; 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  PRAYER  123 

the  son  is  apt  to  forget  that  the  Father  cares, 
needs  to  feel  that  the  "  heavenly  Father  knoweth 
that  ye  have  need  of  all  these  things,"  needs  the 
deep  sunk  sense  of  trust  that  if  the  Father  feeds 
the  birds  and  clothes  the  grass  of  the  field  He 
will  provide  what  we  shall  eat  and  wherewithal 
we  shall  be  clothed.  And  not  only  so  but  the  son 
is  prone  to  forget  the  Father's  way,  needs  to  be 
reminded  of  His  kingdom  and  His  righteousness, 
needs  to  have  the  son  spirit  in  him  plenished  by 
the  Holy  Spirit  which  the  Father  gives  to  them 
that  ask  Him. 

And  so  the  great  thing,  the  ultimate  spiritual 
achievement  is  to  be  able  to  say  "  Father  "  and 
saying  it  to  feel  it  as  the  realest  fact  of  time  and 
eternity.  And  prayer  becomes  the  effort  of  the 
son  to  deepen,  enrich,  strengthen  the  sense  of 
union  which  the  name  "  Father  "  implies.  "  Hal- 
lowed be  Thy  name,"  that  Name  which  makes  the 
world  just  a  parent's  home  and  all  the  folks  in 
it  one's  brothers;  hallowed  be  that  Name  which 
makes  the  law  of  the  home  love.  And  "  Thy 
will  be  done,  as  in  heaven,  so  on  earth,"  let  that 
law  of  love  be  our  law;  let  all  the  details  of  liv- 
ing, the  daily  bread,  the  daily  trespass,  the  daily 
hurt,  the  daily  struggle  feel  its  permanence  and 
its  power.  "  Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven,  Hal- 
lowed be  Thy  name,"  with  that  word  the  son  re- 
alizes his  sonship  and  overcomes  all  inward  anxi- 


124  T'HE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

ety.  "  Thy  will  be  done,  as  in  heaven,  so  on 
earth,"  with  that  word  the  son  defeats  his  egoism 
and  knows  himself  one  with  the  Father  in  His 
sublime  purpose  of  love.  And  this  is  prayer,  first 
a  restful  trust  in,  and  second  a  positive  devote- 
ment  to  the  royal  will  of  the  Father. 

That  is  the  unique  in  Jesus'  idea  of  prayer. 
Men  had  thought  of  prayer  as  a  means  to  get  the 
deity  to  do  their  will.  Jesus  thought  of  prayer  as 
the  means  by  which  He  got  Himself  to  do  the 
Father's  will.  By  it  man  sought  to  master  the 
gods.  By  it  Jesus  sought  to  have  the  Father 
master  Him.  Jacob  with  prayer  thinks  to  make 
a  bargain  wherein  God's  service  will  be  procured 
for  his  side.  Jesus  with  prayer  trustfully  com- 
mits Himself  to  the  service  of  God.  Jacob's 
prayer  is  "  human  selfishness  addressing  itself 
naively  to  the  selfishness  of  Jehovah."  Jesus' 
prayer  is  the  disinterested  abandonment  of  self 
and  devotement  to  a  God  of  love.  The  one  would 
have  heaven  go  his  way;  the  other  would  make 
Himself  go  heaven's  way.  The  one  says,  *'  not 
Thy  will  but  mine  be  done."  The  other  says, 
"  not  my  will  but  Thine  be  done." 

This  then  is  Jesus'  teaching  about  prayer :  —  it 
is  not  a  sort  of  etiquette  to  be  paid  to  God ;  a 
child  has  no  need  of  many  w^ords  or  great  words 
to  get  His  Father's  ear,  or  make  His  Father  under- 
stand.    "  If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  PRAYER  1 25 

good  gifts  unto  your  children,  how  much  more 
shall  your  heavenly  Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit 
to  them  that  ask  Him  ?  "  Prayer  is  not  an  at- 
tempt to  wrestle  something  from  God  which  He 
will  give  only  after  struggle;  a  father  knows  his 
child's  needs  before  the  child  asks.  "  Your  heav- 
enly Father  knoweth  that  ye  have  need  of  all 
these  things."  Prayer  is  not  a  struggle  to  win 
the  favor  of  a  god  who  is  against  us ;  "  seek  ye 
first  His  kingdom  and  His  righteousness;  and  all 
these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you."  But 
prayer  is  the  search  for  a  realer  appreciation  of 
God's  Fatherhood;  it  is  the  loss  of  egoism  in 
trustful  sonship;  it  is  the  surrender  of  self  to  a 
loving  power  whose  kingship  we  would  have  pene- 
trate thought,  feeling  and  will.  Prayer  is  the 
son  coming  to  the  Father  with  whom  he  knows 
himself  to  be  in  business,  to  get  the  Father's 
orders  for  the  doing  of  the  business. 

A  clear  sight  of  this  idea  of  prayer  ought  to 
clean  up  with  quiet  evaporation  all  the  perplex- 
ing questions  which  befog  and  mildew  our  thoughts 
about  prayer.  There  is  the  idea  that  it  is  use- 
less to  pray  because  the  universe  is  everywhere 
bound  by  laws  to  which  the  Almighty  God  must 
be  true.  There  is  the  other  notion  that  since  God 
is  good  and  makes  all  things  work  together  for 
good,  it  is  an  impertinence  to  ask  Him  for  any- 
thing.    But  get  Jesus'  idea  settled  firmly  among 


126  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

our  religious  hypotheses  —  prayer  is  not  an  ef- 
fort to  get  God  to  do  our  will,  but  a  positive  com- 
mitment of  ourselves  to  His  will  and  the  whole 
atmosphere  lights  up.  The  man  who  follows 
Jesus'  way  of  praying  does  not  regard  prayer  as 
chiefly  for  specific  things ;  he  does  not  believe  that 
God  will  give  him  everything  he  asks  for,  nor  does 
he  even  desire  this.  He  recalls  that  his  Master 
prayed,  "  Father,  if  it  be  possible  let  this  cup  pass 
from  me,"  and  the  cup  did  not  pass  from  Him. 
For  the  Christian  prayer  seeks  not  a  change  in 
things,  but  a  change  in  character,  such  a  reform- 
ing of  the  inward  life  as  shall  make  it  conform  to 
the  Father's  Image.  The  thing  he  seeks  in  prayer 
is  not  outward,  but  inward,  the  peace  which  pas- 
seth  understanding  as  St.  Paul  puts  it  in  that 
masterly  description  of  prayer  and  what  comes 
of  it,  "  In  nothing  be  anxious ;  but  in  everything 
by  prayer  and  supplication  with  thanksgiving  let 
your  requests  be  made  known  unto  God.  And 
the  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all  understand- 
ing, shall  guard  your  hearts  and  your  thoughts  in 
Christ  Jesus." 

Prayer  thought  of  in  Jesus'  way  will  not  be 
tested  by  so-called  "  answers,"  that  is  by  the  num- 
ber of  things  received  as  a  direct  result  of  peti- 
tion. But  this  will  be  its  value  judgment  —  does 
prayer  uplift  life,  does  it  take  the  whine  out  of 
us,  does  it  fit  the  life  into  the  "  omnipresent  ethi- 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  PRAYER  127 

cal  trend  "  of  things,  does  it  give  a  push  to  the 
uprise  of  the  world  by  adjusting  the  finite  desire 
to  the  infinite  design?  That  is  the  only  prayer- 
test.  Years  ago  Professor  Tyndall  challenged  the 
religious  world  to  a  trial  of  prayer.  A  selected 
number  of  patients  in  a  hospital  were  to  be  prayed 
for,  and  the  efficacy  of  prayer  was  to  be  deter- 
mined by  the  results.  When  that  challenge  was 
declined  the  ungodly  mocked,  and  some  among 
the  godly  felt  as  if  faith  had  been  eclipsed.  But 
the  whole  thing  was  as  foolish  as  it  was  ignorant. 
And  now  from  those  very  London  hospitals  comes 
a  medical  estimate  of  prayer.  At  a  recent  meeting 
of  the  British  Medical  Association,  the  Superin- 
tendent of  the  Bethlem  Royal  Hospital  said,  "  As 
an  alienist  and  one  whose  whole  life  has  been  con- 
cerned with  the  sufferings  of  the  mind,  I  would 
state  that  of  all  hygienic  measures  to  counteract 
disturbed  sleep,  depressed  spirits,  and  all  the  mis- 
erable sequels  of  a  distressed  mind,  I  would  un- 
doubtedly give  the  first  place  to  the  simple  habit 
of  prayer.  Let  there  be  but  a  habit  of  nightly 
communion,  not  as  a  mendicant  or  repeater  of 
words  more  adapted  to  the  tongue  of  a  sage,  but 
as  a  humble  individual  who  submerges  or  asserts 
his  individuality  as  an  integral  part  of  a  greater 
zuhole.  Such  a  habit  does  more  to  clean  the  spirit 
and  strengthen  the  soul  to  overcome  mere  inci- 
dental   emotionalism   than   any   other   therapeutic 


128  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

agent  known  to  me."  Tyndall  thought  prayer 
was  petition  for  things,  he  had  Jacob's  idea.  Dr. 
Hyslop  defines  prayer  as  self-adjustment  to  the  in- 
finite, "  assertion  of  individuahty  as  an  integral 
part  of  a  greater  whole,"  he  has  Jesus'  idea.  In 
a  word  according  to  Jesus'  teaching  prayer  is  the 
practice  of  the  presence  of  our  Father. 

What  that  practice  means  comes  out  clearest 
in  the  way  the  Master  Himself  prayed.  It  gives 
one  pause  to  discover,  as  a  great  Scotch  preacher 
suggests,  that  when  Jesus  prayed  something 
serious  happened ;  ''  His  praying  was  not  the  mere 
preparation  or  discipline  for  the  battle,  but  the 
battlefield  and  the  battle  itself."  Dr.  George 
Adam  Smith  points  out  that  our  Lord's  praying 
times  were  the  times  fullest  of  effort,  strain  and 
struggle.  At  first  thought  it  might  seem  other- 
wise, that  the  restfulest  hours  for  Him  were  those 
when  He  was  in  communion  with  God,  that  the 
strain  and  drain  on  Him  came  with  His  ministry 
to  diseased  bodies  and  dull  minds.  But  the  gospels 
leave  another  impression.  He  who  could  work  a 
miracle  with  a  word,  refute  His  enemies  with  a 
sentence,  and  confront  the  majesty  of  Rome  with 
composure,  could  not  pray  for  Himself  without 
effort,  exhaustion,  even  anguish.  We  see  Him 
on  the  day  of  His  baptism,  that  day  when  He 
made  His  august  self-discovery  and  retired  into  the 
wilderness  to  be  alone  with  His  God,  to  talk  with 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  PRAYER  1 29 

His  Father  about  His  mission,  its  meaning  and  its 
methods.  And  along  the  lines  of  the  narrative 
we  catch  the  sounds  of  a  stupendous  struggle 
wherein  light  and  darkness  fought  their  eternal 
battle  in  His  soul  for  days  and  days.  The  place 
of  prayer  became  His  arena.  We  see  Him  again 
at  the  tomb  of  Lazarus,  hfting  His  soul  in  prayer 
and  the  record  is  "  he  groaned  in  the  spirit  and 
was  troubled."  A  few  days  before  His  death 
as  He  heard  the  approaching  footfalls  of  the  mes- 
sengers who  were  to  rob  him  of  life  He  prayed, 
"  Now  is  my  soul  troubled ;  and  what  shall  I 
say?  Father,  save  me  from  this  hour.  But  for 
this  cause  came  I  unto  this  hour,  Father,  glorify 
Thy  name."  And  on  the  night  before  He  died, 
the  night  when  the  friends  who  had  stood  beside 
Him  all  along,  could  follow  Him  no  farther.  He 
stepped  aside  under  the  kindly  loneliness- of  the 
olive  trees  to  meet  His  Father,  and  kneeling  there 
He  prayed,  "  Father,  if  Thou  be  willing,  remove 
this  cup  from  me;  nevertheless  not  my  will  but 
Thine  be  done.  And  being  in  an  agony  He 
prayed  more  earnestly;  and  His  sweat  became  as 
it  were  great  drops  of  blood  falling  down  upon  the 
ground." 

To  Jesus  praying  meant  fighting.  He  made  it 
the  field  on  which  He  settled  the  problems  of  life ; 
it  was  His  arena  where  He  grappled  hand-to-hand 
with  temptation ;  there  He  won  His  victories  over 


I30  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

self ;  there  He  achieved  that  sublime  serenity  which 
upbore  Him  through  the  days  of  enervating  toil 
and  gave  Him  that  magnificent  carriage  which 
made  His  crucifixion  an  enthronement  and  not  a 
failure.  The  Christ's  practise  matched  His  pre- 
cept. He  taught  that  prayer  meant  self-revision, 
defeat  of  the  ego,  surrender  to  the  Father's  will. 
By  parable,  sermon  and  model  prayer  He  showed 
how  all  prayer  began  and  ended  in  a  wish  for  the 
kingdom's  coming;  and  so  His  own  prayers  are 
covered  wdth  the  dust  of  the  battlefield,  they  are 
wet  with  sweat  and  blood.  Beside  that  tragedy 
in  the  wilderness  where  for  a  month  and  more 
He  faced  one  by  one  the  traditional  ideals,  and 
made  His  own  ideals  of  the  Messiahship  sub- 
ject to  the  great  new  vision  of  God's  Son  He  had 
gained;  beside  that  lonely  fight  under  the  olive 
trees  in  the  night  when  the  lifting  of  His  will 
Godward  brought  the  blood-drops  to  His  brow, 
how  tame,  flat,  insipid  and  powerless  are  the 
things  we  call  prayers  wherein  with  easy  assur- 
ance we  snatch  at  any  glittering  blessing  that 
catches  the  eye,  or  make  requisition  upon  Al- 
mightiness  for  the  satisfaction  of  our  insignificant 
desires. 

Prayer  means  the  daily  defeat  of  one's  own 
will  by  the  will  of  the  divine  Father.  And 
that  costs,  and  the  need  of  that  is  constant.  For 
life  is   a  running  fight   for  the  Christian.     Not 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  PRAYER  131 

even  He  who  from  childhood  had  been  about  His 
Father's  business  could  face  death  without  saying 
again,  and  the  saying  it  meant  sweat  and  blood, 
''  Not  my  will  but  Thine  be  done."  Three  hun- 
dred years  ago  John  Donne,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's, 
wrote,  and  each  one  of  us  may  say  it  for  himself, 

Wilt  Thou  forgive  that  sin  where  I  begun, 

Which  was  my  sin,  though  it  were  done  before? 
Wilt  Thou  forgive  that  sin,  through  which  I  run. 
And  do  run  still,  though  still  I  do  deplore? 
When  Thou  hast  done,  Thou  hast  not  done. 
For  I  have  more. 

Wilt  Thou  forgive  that  sin  which  I  have  won 
Others  to  sin,  and  made  my  sin  their  door? 
Wilt  Thou  forgive  that  sin  which  I  did  shun 
A  year  or  two,  but  wallowed  in  a  score? 
When  Thou  hast  done.  Thou  hast  not  done. 
For  I  have  more. 

I  have  a  sin  of  fear,  that  when  I  have  spun 

My  last  thread,  I  shall  perish  on  the  shore; 
But  swear  by  Thyself,  that  at  my  death  Thy  Son 
Shall  shine  as  He  shines  now,  and  heretofore; 
And  having  done  that,  Thou  hast  done, 
I  fear  no  more. 


VIII 
JESUS'  IDEA  OF  IMMORTALITY 


"  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life :  he  that  believeth 
on  me,  though  he  die,  yet  shall  he  live ;  and  whosoever 
liveth  and  believeth  on  me  shall  never  die." 

"  In  my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions ;  if  it  were 
not  so,  I  would  have  told  you ;  for  I  go  to  prepare  a  place 
for  you." 

"  To-day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in  Paradise." 

"  There  ran  one  to  Him,  and  kneeled  to  Him,  and  asked 
Him,  Good  Teacher,  what  shall  I  do  that  I  may  inherit 
eternal  life?  And  Jesus  said  unto  him,  Why  callest  thou 
me  good?  none  is  good  save  one,  even  God.  Thou  knowest 
the  commandments.  Do  not  kill.  Do  not  commit  adultery, 
Do  not  steal,  Do  not  bear  false  witness,  Do  not  defraud, 
Honor  thy  father  and  mother.  And  he  said  unto  Him, 
Teacher,  all  these  things  have  I  observed  from  my  youth. 
And  Jesus  looking  upon  him  loved  him,  and  said  unto  him, 
One  thing  thou  lackest:  go,  sell  whatsoever  thou  hast,  and 
give  to  the  poor,  and  thou  shalt  have  treasure  in  heaven : 
and  come,  follow  me.  But  his  countenance  fell  at  the 
saying,  and  he  went  away  sorrowful:  for  he  was  one  that 
had  great  possessions." 


VIII 

JESUS'  IDEA  OF  IMMORTALITY 

In  1883,  when  he  stood  upon  the  edge  of  three 
score  years,  a  noted  scientist  wrote  to  a  friend, 
"  It  is  a  curious  thing  that  I  find  my  disHke  to 
the  thought  of  extinction  increasing  as  I  get  older 
and  nearer  the  goal.  It  flashes  across  me  at  all 
sorts  of  times  with  a  sort  of  horror  that  in  1900 
I  shall  probably  know  no  more  than  I  did  in  1800. 
I  had  sooner  be  in  hell."  The  words  are  Hux- 
ley's; they  might  be  any  man's.  For  of  all  the 
black-winged  doubts  which  seek  to  breed  in  the 
human  mind,  there  is  none  so  ugly,  so  persistent, 
so  unwelcome  as  the  doubt  of  immortality.  It  is 
an  ancient,  ill-omened  bird,  this  doubt  of  immor- 
tality; good  men  in  all  times  have  reported  seeing 
it.  But  somehow  these  recent  years  its  brood  has 
grown  in  numbers  and  pugnacity,  until  there  is 
hardly  a  mind  in  which  the  doubt  has  not  tried  to 
nest;  while  from  many  a  soul  it  has  driven  the 
song-birds  of  faith  and  hope,  and  though  often 
beaten  off,  it  has  persisted  iri  hatching  out  its 
brood  until  all  the  blue  above  is  noisy  with  its 

135 


136  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

woeful  clamor  and  shadowed  with  its  sable  pin- 
ions. Even  among  the  faithful  there  is  much 
restless  uncertainty  crying,  "  Lord,  I  believe,  help 
thou  my  unbelief,"  and  many  who  sincerely  be- 
lieve in  God  and  Christ  do  not  know  surely 
whether  they  have  faith  in  the  immortality  of  the 
soul. 

The  new  habit  of  science  with  its  thirst  for  facts, 
its  hunger  for  truth,  and  its  insatiable  demand  for 
evidence,  has  done  much  to  bring  about  this  doubt. 
Those  who  used  the  test-tube  and  the  microscope 
reported  that  they  could  find  in  life  no  immortality, 
and  over  the  heart  of  man  there  came  a  great 
despair,  and  the  feeling  that  there  had  come  an 
end  to  faith.  But  what  men  ought  to  know  is  that 
this  science  which  bred  unfaith,  though  so  new, 
is  already  out  of  date;  the  loud-mouthed  dogma- 
tism which  trusted  only  what  it  could  see  with  the 
eyes  of  flesh,  has  been  repudiated,  and  now  science 
talks  of  an  unseen  world  which,  as  Prof.  Shaler 
puts  it^  is  "  a  realm  of  unending  and  infinitely 
varied  originations."  Beginning  like  the  Italian 
peasant,  who,  spading  his  field,  suddenly  saw  his 
spade  sink  through  the  familiar  earth  and  drop 
out  of  sight,  to  be  found  again  among  the  glori- 
ous buried  ruins  of  Herculaneum,  science  has 
broken  through  into  a  world  behind  the  minutest 
visible  thing  its  microscope  can  see.  Not  yet  may 
science  say,   "  I  know  the  fact  of  immortality," 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  IMMORTALITY  137 

because  its  code  forbids  it  to  speak  confidently  of 
what  it  may  not  demonstrate;  not  yet  is  it  able  to 
prove  that  our  dead  are,  because  its  field  of  ob- 
servation is  bounded  by  the  little  mounds  "  where 
angels  walk  and  seraphs  are  the  wardens  " ;  but 
the  men  of  science  are  bold  to  say  as  John  Fiske, 
"  For  my  own  part  I  believe  in  the  immortality 
of  the  soul,  not  in  the  sense  in  which  I  accept 
demonstrable  truths  of  science,  but  as  a  supreme 
act  of  faith  in  the  reasonableness  of  God's  work;" 
or  as  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  "  I  believe  we  may  enter 
into  the  life  eternal ;  by  which  I  mean  that  whereas 
our  terrestrial  existence  is  temporary,  our  real 
existence  continues  without  ceasing."  So  then 
when  to-day  the  Church  repeats  its  belief  in  the 
life  everlasting,  from  the  laboratories  a  voice 
seems  to  answer  in  antiphon,  "  the  life  everlast- 
ing," a  voice,  not  like  religion's  to  be  sure,  un- 
questioning, unhesitating,  but  a  voice  still  tremu- 
lous and  restrained,  a  voice  of  unspeakable  depth 
and  richness,  hoping  for  more  than  it  dare  yet  to 
prove. 

Science  says,  you  may  believe  in  immortality. 
You  may  believe  because  the  universe  shows  an 
eternal  purpose;  man  is  the  terminal  station  in 
the  stupendous  age-long  process  which  we  call 
evolution;  man  is  the  chief  end  and  glory,  the  tip 
and  top  of  this  developing  scheme.  Says  a  great 
evolutionist,    "  the   more  thoroughly  we   compre- 


138  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

hend  the  process  of  evolution,  the  more  we  are 
Hkely  to  feel  that  to  deny  the  everlasting  per- 
sistence of  the  spiritual  element  in  man  is  to  rob 
the  whole  process  of  its  meaning."  To  say  that  a 
soul  died  would  be  to  give  the  lie  to  evolution. 
To  suppose  that  a  bacillus  or  a  brain-clot  could 
kill  a  soul  were  to  think  a  bean  could  dam  Ni- 
agara. You  may  believe,  says  science,  because 
nature  knows  no  annihilation  only  change  of  form ; 
every  end  in  matter  is  only  a  new  beginning,  an- 
other embodiment.  The  coal-stuff  decomposed  by 
fire  is  recomposed  as  light  and  heat;  the  irides- 
cent globule  of  dew  vanishes  to  find  itself  again 
in  the  floating  cloud.  Can  mind  be  less  than  coal 
or  dew  ?  To  think  so  were  to  stand  nature  on  its 
head;  the  law  of  conservation  cries  out  that  the 
soul  we  ''  loved  long  since  and  lost  awhile  "  still 
is  and  is  with  us, 

"  Else  earth   is  darkness  at  the  core, 
And  dust  and  ashes  all  that  is." 

History  says,  you  may  believe  in  immortality. 
We  take  her  hand  and  she  leads  us  through  the 
ages  as  through  the  long  drawn  out  aisles  and 
gloomy  crypts  of  some  ancient  cathedral.  Strange 
are  the  fires  we  see  burning  on  many  altars;  un- 
savory is  the  incense  we  smell  arising  from  many 
censers;  repellent  to  us  are  many  of  the  rites  we 
discover  practised  in  many  corners  of  the  vast 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  IMMORTALITY  139 

pile.  But  from  every  chapel  and  chancel,  from 
every  stall  and  transept,  from  cloister,  crypt  and 
clerestory  re-echoes  one  consenting  phrase  in  the 
speech  of  every  nation  and  tribe  and  people,  like 
the  sound  of  many  waters,  "  I  believe  in  the  life 
everlasting."  Everywhere  with  all  men  there  has 
been  a  quarrel  with  death.  Six  thousand  years 
ago  the  Egyptian  wrote  his  "  Book  of  the  Dead," 
and  based  his  whole  theory  of  life  on  the  idea 
of  another  world.  "  Mistaken "  reads  the 
Bhavagad  Gita,  "  is  he  who  thinks  the  soul  can 
be  destroyed."  Confucianism's  whole  creed  is  a 
belief  in  the  life  everlasting,  its  worship  a  revering 
of  its  ancestors.  Vague  and  unsatisfactory  the 
Christian  finds  the  Old  Testament  when  he  seeks 
for  expression  of  confidence  in  the  life  eternal, 
but  that  the  Jew  believed  that  death  was  not  ex- 
tinction, any  one  may  see  who  reads  such  stories 
as  the  Witch  of  Endor,  the  translation  of  Enoch 
and  the  radiant  ascension  of  Elijah,  or  studies 
those  stanzas  in  the  Psalms  and  portions  of  the 
prophets  which,  breaking  upward  like  springs  of 
sweet  water  in  the  bitter  surge,  deny  the  possi- 
bility that  God  can  relinquish  to  the  grave  those 
who  put  their  trust  in  Him.  Here  is  an  idea  so 
universal  that  John  Fiske  calls  it  "  one  of  the  dif- 
ferential attributes  of  humanity,"  and  history  says, 
it  is  rational  to  believe  that  so  human,  so  universal 
a  faith  has  its  eternal  complement  in  fact.     If  the 


I40  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

eye  argues  light,  and  the  ear  music,  and  the  con- 
science right,  if  every  function  means  a  corre- 
sponding environment,  then  this  quarrel  v^ith 
death,  this  belief  in  an  endless  life  must  have  its 
antiphonal  fact.  To  doubt  immortality  were  to 
doubt  the  universe. 

History  says,  you  may  believe  in  immortality 
because  the  movement  of  society  has  been  uniform 
in  the  development  of  the  individual  and  the  in- 
creasing appraisement  of  his  value.  Man  the 
species  exists  for  man  the  person.  The  higher 
the  race  ascends  the  more  the  single  individual 
is  v^orth  to  it.  For  the  man  exist  all  those  asy- 
lums and  institutions,  hospitals  and  sanatoria, 
associations  and  settlements  which  are  the  crown 
and  characteristic  of  civilization.  Men  do  not 
invest  capital  in  the  building  of  a  Lusitania  to 
carry  saw-dust  dolls  from  continent  to  continent. 
Such  magnificence  of  equipment  is  not  furnished 
to  convey  garbage  to  a  dumping  ground.  Such 
luxury  of  service,  such  expenditure  of  means  is 
meant  to  transport  freight,  get  men  whose  time 
is  precious  to  destinations  across  the  seas.  And 
shall  the  Supreme  Master-Builder  that  planned 
this  floating  world,  that  spent  millions  of  years 
building  it,  that  furnished  it  with  races  and  na- 
tions, and  all  for  individual  souls,  shall  this  Ship- 
wright Himself  standing  on  the  bridge  and  guiding 
His  ship  full  of  souls  it  was  launched  for,  only 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  IMMORTALITY         141 

fling  overboard  these  priceless  lives  and  hurl  them 
headlong  into  nothingness  in  the  midcourse  of 
their  voyage  to  His  continent  ?  To  say  the  poison 
cup  could  rot  Socrates,  the  stake  burn  Savonarola, 
the  bullet  finish  Lincoln,  to  suppose  death  brought 
the  same  thing  to  Paul  and  Nero,  to  Leo  and 
Luther,  to  Judas  and  Jesus  were  to  tear  from 
history  what  it  has  found  through  all  its  course, 
"  A  Power  not  ourselves  which  makes  for  right- 
eousness." 

Science  says,  you  may  believe  in  immortality 
because  the  individual  soul  is  the  chief  end  of  the 
working  of  "  The  Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy 
from  which  all  things  proceed."  History  says, 
you  may  believe  in  immortality  because  the  in- 
dividual soul  is  the  darling  care  of  that  "  Power 
not  ourselves  which  makes  for  righteousness." 
And  what  science  and  history  says  you  may  be- 
Heve,  Jesus  says  "  I  know,"  and  the  reason  science 
and  history  give  for  their  tentative  faith,  Jesus 
also  gives  for  His  assurance,  "  Not  a  sparrow 
falls  on  the  ground  without  your  Father;  fear  not 
therefore;  ye  are  of  more  value  than  many  spar- 
rows." This  is  Jesus'  assurance  of  the  life  ever- 
lasting, the  inestimable  worth  of  the  individual 
soul  to  our  Father  w^ho  is  in  heaven. 

Jesus  has  very  little  to  say  directly  about  im- 
mortality. Here  again  He  does  not  argue,  but 
assumes.     There    is    the    great    word    He    gave 


142  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

Martha  when  He  went  to  see  her  after  Lazarus' 
death,  "  I  am  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life ;  he 
that  believeth  on  Me,  though  he  die,  yet  shall  he 
live;  and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  on  Me 
shall  never  die."  There  is  the  explicit  statement 
about  the  Father's  house  in  which  there  are  many 
mansions,  and  the  assurance  that  if  there  were  no 
life  on  the  other  side  of  death,  He  would  have 
told  them,  awful  as  it  would  have  been  to  declare 
the  sad  fact.  Then  there  is  that  tender  and  gra- 
cious assurance  given  to  His  comrade  in  cruci- 
fixion; death  is  not  an  end,  not  a  dreamless  sleep, 
not  even  an  interruption  of  self-consciousness, 
"  To-day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in  Paradise." 
These  are  the  most  explicit  utterances  which  Jesus 
made  of  His  conviction  of  immortality.  It  was 
one  of  the  things  which,  from  His  point  of  view, 
went  without  the  saying.  In  the  course  of  a  day's 
conversation  we  talk  little  about  the  sun,  and  in 
the  course  of  a  lifetime  we  never  waste  a  minute 
arguing  for  the  light,  we  just  go  on  living  in  the 
light,  thinking,  speaking,  doing  in  terms  of  the 
sunshine.  It  was  that  way  with  Jesus  and  the 
future  life.  The  teaching  of  the  Master  is  simply 
inexplicable  on  the  supposition  that  death  ends 
all. 

The  Beatitudes  would  mean  nothing  and  the 
parables  unless  there  was  a  conscious  life  after  the 
body  was  folded  away.     That  assumption  under- 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  IMMORTALITY  1 43 

lies  the  story  of  the  guest  without  the  wedding 
garment;  the  builders,  one  of  whom  built  on  the 
sand,  the  other  on  the  rock;  the  rich  man  who 
fared  sumptuously  every  day,  oblivious  of  the  poor 
man  who  lay  at  his  gate;  the  virgins  who  were 
ready  for  the  bridegroom's  coming,  and  the  virgins 
who  were  caught  napping  and  without  oil  in  their 
lamps;  and  the  sublime  scene  of  the  judgment,  at 
which  souls  should  be  separated  as  a  shepherd 
divides  his  sheep  from  his  goats.  According  to 
the  trend  of  Jesus'  teaching,  the  whole  spiritual 
content  of  this  present  life,  its  knowledge,  its  skill, 
its  achievements,  its  character  will  be  carried  over, 
and  hereafter  will  be  just  a  continuation  of  here. 
This  comes  to  the  surface  in  the  parable  of  the 
capitalist  who  entrusted  his  estate  to  three  men. 
The  agent  who  got  five  shares  eventually  doubled 
them,  and  on  his  master's  return  gave  him  ten. 
And  what  did  the  master  do  ?  Simply  compliment 
him  and  then  dismiss  him  ?  "  Thou  hast  been 
faithful  over  a  few  things,  I  will  make  thee  ruler 
over  many  things,  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy 
lord;"  this  man's  life  was  raised,  not  retired,  con- 
tinued, not  closed. 

But  you  come  at  Jesus'  idea  of  the  future  life 
through  His  architectonic  idea  of  God  as  "  Our 
Father,"  and  its  corollary,  His  idea  of  life  itself. 
God  said  Jesus  is  "  Our  Father."  What  it 
means  for  a  human  to  call  the  Divine  Being  "  Our 


144  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

Father "  we  have  already  seen ;  it  renders  the 
human  divine;  it  lifts  man  out  of  the  category  of 
things  which  death  claims  into  another  order  on 
which  death  has  no  lien.  A  father  and  his  chil- 
dren are  shareholders  in  the  same  stock;  if  the 
father's  shares  are  eternal,  the  children's  must  be, 
no  matter  how  small  may  be  their  holdings;  were 
the  children's  shares  rubbish,  the  father's  were  no 
better,  though  his  holdings  were  infinite.  Once 
grant  Fatherhood  in  the  deity  and  there  can  be 
only  one  conclusion,  "  Now  are  we  children  of 
God;  we  shall  be  like  Him."  Does  death  whiff 
us  out,  then  death  has  a  claim  on  deity;  does  He 
live,  then  death  is  "  swallowed  up  in  victory." 
This  man  claiming  the  divine  ancestry  is  of  in- 
estimable worth  to  his  Father.  God  is  like  a 
shepherd;  even  though  he  have  ninety-nine  sheep, 
he  cannot  afford  to  lose  one;  God  is  like  a  house- 
wife with  nine  pieces  of  silver,  restless  because 
one  has  rolled  away;  God  is  like  a  father  who  has 
a  home  and  servants  and  one  trusting  son,  but 
there  is  one  son  in  the  far  country,  and  the  father 
watches,  always  watches  for  that  boy's  coming 
back.  What  once  interlocks  with  the  divine,  re- 
mains forever  interlocked;  what  is  morally  worth 
while  for  God  once,  remains  worth  while  forever. 
As  gravitation  binds  into  one  our  entire  solar 
system,  not  only  planet  to  planet  in  light,  and 
electron  to  electron  in  the  dark,  so  that  the  fate 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  IMMORTALITY  145 

of  the  smallest  electron  were  the  fate  of  the  sun; 
so  with  Fatherhood  Jesus  joins  in  one  the  universe 
of  persons;  not  only  great  spirit  to  great  spirit  in 
bliss,  but  soul  to  soul  in  woe,  so  that  a  soul's 
death  were  divine  death.  The  power  of  His  con- 
ception is  elemental ;  from  Fatherhood  immortality 
leaps  inevitable. 

Then  there  is  that  corollary  idea,  Jesus'  idea  of 
life  itself.  By  "  life "  He  meant  always  more 
than  men  mean;  "The  life,"  He  said,  "is  more 
than  meat ;  it  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the 
things  a  man  possesseth,"  the  whole  world  would 
not  be  a  fair  equivalent  for  one  life.  He  called  it 
"  eternal,"  which  means  no  such  colorless  thing  as 
mere  longevity,  it  means  a  certain  kind  of  lon- 
gevity. It  is  not  quantity  of  life,  but  quality  of 
life.  On  the  face  of  the  Palisades  you  can  make 
out  a  series  of  horizontal  lines  running  parallel  to 
the  river;  on  these  lines  you  read  the  story  of  in- 
numerable winters  when  the  waters  were  fastened 
to  the  banks  with  bands  of  ice,  of  numberless 
spring  freshets  which  sent  the  waters  tumbling 
along  under  the  burden  of  melted  snows.  You 
read  in  these  lines  how  the  river  once  flowed  on 
a  level  with  the  cliff,  how  through  the  centuries  it 
has  been  cutting  its  way  down  the  trap-rock  till 
it  reached  the  lower  level  at  which  it  now  runs; 
and  the  river  makes  you  think  of  years  and  cen- 
turies; you  compute  time;  you  are  aware  of  sea- 


146  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

sons.  But  farther  up  stream  you  swing  in  under 
Storm  King,  its  base  laved  by  the  Hudson's  flood, 
its  august  summit  sweeping  upward  in  silent  un- 
changeableness.  You  forget  the  waters  for  the 
solemn  peak;  you  cease  thinking  of  the  years  and 
centuries,  the  time  and  the  seasons.  Storm  King 
is  indifferent  to  all  these ;  the  snows  and  suns  have 
left  no  line  on  it,  the  seasons  appear  to  have 
slipped  across  it  like  the  mists  through  which  it 
lifts  its  grim  head.  The  river  makes  you  think 
of  time;  the  mountain  makes  you  forget  time. 
The  one  is  of  such  an  age,  the  other  is  ageless. 

And  that  is  something  of  the  difference  between 
"  everlasting "  and  "  eternal."  An  everlasting 
life  is  a  life  which  lasts  so  many  years ;  an  eternal 
life  is  a  life  with  which  years  have  nothing  to  do. 
Eternal  life  is  the  kind  of  life  God  has,  the  kind 
of  life  which  makes  things,  is  not  made,  the  kind 
of  life  which  uses  the  material,  but  is  not  used 
by  it.  It  is  the  kind  of  life  which  may  associate 
itself  with  a  body  which  changes  and  decays, 
while  it  goes  on  from  glory  to  glory.  Its  origin 
is  God,  its  nourishment  is  not  bread,  but  every 
word  which  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God, 
its  attributes  are  love  and  goodness,  mercy  and 
self-sacrifice,  things  which  neither  come  with  the 
years  nor  age  with  them,  things  which  would  be 
though  time  stopped,  things  which  are  the  vic- 
torious contradiction  of  change  and  death.     This 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  IMMORTALITY  147 

is  what  Jesus  means  by  life;  it  was  in  the  begin- 
ning with  God  before  things  were  or  death;  it 
shall  be  with  God  when  the  things  which  death 
decompose  recompose  according  to  that  mighty 
working  whereby  He  is  able  to  subdue  all  things 
unto  Himself.  And  this  divine  thing,  this  time- 
less thing,  Christ  says  men  have,  "  verily,  verily, 
I  say  unto  you,  He  that  heareth  my  word  and  be- 
lieveth  Him  that  sent  me,  hath  eternal  life." 
Sensuous  existence  is  not  human  life,  human  life 
is  eternal,  and  what  is  eternal  is  divine,  and  on  the 
divine  death  has  no  claim,  the  grave  no  lien. 
This,  then,  is  Jesus'  assurance  of  immortality, 
the  inestimable  worth  of  the  individual  to  our  Fa- 
ther who  is  in  heaven.  Grant  His  premise  and 
the  conclusion  follows,  "  as  we  have  borne  the 
image  of  the  earthly,  we  shall  also  bear  the  image 
of  the  heavenly.'' 

But  Jesus  seems  to  say  that  this  Christian  im- 
mortality is  not  only  a  fact,  but  a  task.  Every 
man  has  it  potentially,  but  every  man  has  it  not 
practically.  There  is  no  question  that  life  is  ever- 
lasting; He  seems  to  say  that  every  one  will  live 
on  and  on  through  infinite  time;  but  a  study  of 
His  teaching  leaves  one  with  the  impression  that 
every  one  has  not  yet  reached  that  God-like  quality 
of  longevity  which  is  implied  in  the  w^ord 
"  eternal."  I  have  examined  every  reported  say- 
ing of  Jesus  about  eternal  life,  and  I  think  I  am 


148  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

right  in  saying  that  there  is  not  one  which  does 
not  make  its  possession  contingent  upon  the  ful- 
fillment of  certain  conditions.  "  He  that  be- 
lie veth  in  me  hath  eternal  life'*  is  His  character- 
istic way  of  putting  it. 

Scripture  seems  to  make  it  positive  that  every 
soul  has  everlastingness,  but  Scripture  also  seems 
to  make  it  positive  that  for  Jesus'  kind  of  everlast- 
ingness every  soul  has  got  to  qualify.  The  gospels 
record  a  striking  instance  in  which  this  is  set  out 
very  clearly.  They  tell  the  story  of  a  youitg  man 
who  came  to  Jesus  asking,  "  Good  Teacher,  what 
shall  I  do  that  I  may  inherit  eternal  life?"  The 
man  was  young,  well-born  and  bred,  winsome  and 
reverent.  At  sight  of  him,  it  is  said  Jesus  loved 
him.  When  Jesus  inquired  into  his  private  life 
he  could  look  straight  into  the  face  of  the  Master 
and  say  without  stammering  that  he  had  kept  the 
moral  law  from  his  youth  up.  Then  it  is  said 
Jesus  looked  upon  him,  and  the  word  translated 
"  looked "  denotes  the  searching  glance  of  one 
who  sees  through  and  through.  And  Jesus  said 
to  the  young  patrician,  "  One  thing  thou  lackest." 
Up  to  a  certain  point  the  young  man's  life  was 
complete.  It  had  all  it  needed ;  its  machinery  was 
in  perfect  order ;  there  was  no  screw  loose,  no  cog 
slipped.  If  eternal  life  was  only  an  indefinite 
continuance  of  existence,  all  this  young  man 
needed  was  to  go  on  as  he  had  been  going,  keeping 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  IMMORTALITY        149 

himself  nicely  adjusted  to  his  daily  surroundings. 
But  the  young  man  felt  that  eternal  life  was 
something  more  than  keeping  on  forever.  And 
Jesus  told  him  what  was  needed  for  him  to  qualify 
for  the  kind  of  life  he  was  looking  for.  "  Go," 
said  the  Master,  "  sell  whatsoever  thou  hast  and 
give  to  the  poor,  and  thou  slialt  have  treasure  in 
heaven;  and  come,  follow  me." 

Did  Jesus  mean  that  by  turning  philanthropist 
the  young  man  would  inherit  the  eternal  kind  of 
everlastingness  ?  It  is  said  that  when  he  heard 
Jesus'  method  for  the  practise  of  immortality  he 
went  away  sorrowful,  and  Jesus,  looking  after  him, 
said,  "  How  hard  is  it  for  them  that  trust  in 
riches  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God."  It  was 
not  the  habit  of  almsgiving  that  he  lacked ;  it  was 
the  "  treasure  in  heaven."  With  that  look  the 
Master  fixed  on  him.  He  saw  that  the  man's  whole 
life  centered  in  the  things  with  which  time  deals, 
in  money,  investments,  interest  and  dividends.  He 
saw  that  the  man  must  be  lifted  away  from  this 
time  relationship,  he  must  be  put  into  touch  with 
timeless  things.  He  must  live  on  and  for  and 
with  the  things  which  are  above  time,  the  things 
Jesus  Himself  stood  for,  a  world  of  imperishable 
truth,  a  world  of  eternal  thought,  a  world  of  god- 
like holiness  and  love. 

It  was  not  something  the  man  had  which  dis- 
qualified him  for  eternal  life;  the  condition  of  it 


I50  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

which  Jesus  imposed  was  not  poverty.  It  was 
something  the  man  lacked  which  kept  his  ever- 
lastingness  from  being  eternal  living.  It  was  not 
the  wealth,  but  it  was  the  trust  in  the  wealth  in- 
hibiting all  attention  to  anything  higher  which 
was  keeping  him  just  a  sheer  scrap  of  longevity. 
To  qualify  for  Christ's  kind  of  immortality  he 
must  liberate  his  interest,  and  the  only  way  this 
could  be  done  was  to  put  the  possessions  where' 
they  could  not  interest  him.  Could  he  have  held 
his  wealth  so  loosely  that  it  would  not  have  ab- 
sorbed him,  he  might  have  kept  the  wealth  and  at 
the  same  time  made  good  his  right  to  the  higher 
life.  But  the  trouble  was  he  was  the  sort  of  man 
who  could  not  follow  eternal  life  and  follow 
wealth  at  the  same  time,  and  so  the  one  or  the 
other  had  to  be  given  up,  and  Jesus  said,  let  the 
wealth  go,  then  come,  follow  me. 

So  this  is  Jesus'  regimen  for  eternal  life  —  get 
into  the  unseen  relationships,  put  yourself  into 
your  higher  environment.  Would  you  become 
eternal,  you  must  trust  the  eternal,  confide  in  the 
eternal,  correspond  with  the  eternal,  "  This  is  life 
eternal  that  they  should  know  Thee  the  only  true 
God."  Christian  immortality  being  a  kind  of  life, 
it  must  be  subject  to  the  laws  of  life,  and  life,  says 
one  who  studied  the  thing,  is  "  the  continuous  ad- 
justment of  internal  relations  to  external  rela- 
tions."    That    is    to    say,    the    oak-germ   that    is 


JESUS'  IDEA  OF  IMMORTALITY  151 

wrapped  up  in  an  acorn  does  not  become  oak  until 
that  oak-germ  adjusts  itself  to,  appropriates  to  it- 
self from  its  surroundings  the  material  which  is 
fitted  to  make  oaken  fibre.  You  get  life  wherever 
the  organism  in  which  the  life  is  keeps  itself  in 
correspondence  with  its  surroundings. 

If  we  want  physical  life  we  must  appropriate, 
"have  treasure  in,"  physical  things  —  air,  light, 
bread,  water,  shelter.  If  we  want  intellectual 
life,  we  must  appropriate,  "  have  treasure  in  "  in- 
tellectual things,  truths,  facts.  If  we  want  ar- 
tistic life  we  must  appropriate,  "have  treasure 
in  "  artistic  things,  the  beautiful  in  nature  and  hu- 
man nature.  Physical  environment  gives  life  its 
physical  quality ;  intellectual  environment  gives  life 
its  intellectual  quality.  But  what  shall  give  life 
its  eternal  quality?  The  eternal  environment 
is  the  only  thing  which  can  give  life  its 
eternal  quality.  Science,  history  and  Scripture 
seem  to  vote  for  the  everlasting  survival  of  the 
soul;  but  neither  science,  history  nor  Scripture 
can  prove  that  the  soul  will  survive  in  the  Christly 
way  unless  it  be  adjusted  to  the  Christly  condi- 
tions. And  these  conditions,  surely  they  are  not 
mere  things  that  time  rusts  and  rots ;  they  are  the 
things  time  cannot  touch  —  God.  To  this  Eternal 
Father  the  soul  must  be  related  in  childlike  trust 
and  brotherly  love. 

The  fundamental  question  is  not  —  is  there  a 


152  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

life  everlasting?  It  looks  as  if  that  mere  fact 
would  soon  be  demonstrated;  but  this  is  the  ques- 
tion—  if  my  soul  survives  everlastingly  will  it 
share  in  the  "  eternal  life,"  the  life  that  is  in  God  ? 
To  him  who  will  say  "  Our  Father  who  art  in 
heaven,"  and  saying  it,  mean  it,  and  live  it  in- 
wardly and  outwardly,  comes  the  great  assurance, 
"  This  corruptible  must  put  on  incorruption,  and 
this  mortal  must  put  on  immortality ;  so  when  this 
corruptible  shall  have  put  on  incorruption,  and  this 
mortal  shall  have  put  on  immortality,  then  shall 
be  brought  to  pass  the  saying  that  is  written, 
Death  is  swallowed  up  in  victory." 


IX 
THE  PROOF  OF  JESUS'  IDEA  OF  GOD 


"  Now  when  John  heard  in  prison  the  works  of  the 
Christ,  he  sent  by  his  disciples  and  said  unto  Him,  Art 
Thou  he  that  cometh,  or  look  we  for  another?  And  Jesus 
answered  and  said  unto  them.  Go  and  tell  John  the  things 
which  ye  hear  and  see:  the  blind  receive  their  sight,  and 
the  lame  walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  and  the  deaf  hear, 
and  the  dead  are  raised  up,  and  the  poor  have  good  tidings 
preached  to  them." 

"  Believe  me  that  I  am  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in 
me :  or  else  believe  me  for  the  very  works'  sake." 


IX 

THE  PROOF  OF  JESUS'  IDEA  OF  GOD 

Jesus'  idea  of  God  is  the  essence  of  the  gospel. 
It  is  the  simple  tincture  which  impregnates  every 
doctrine  of  the  Christian  faith.  It  "  is  the  heart 
of  Christianity,  its  most  central  and  esoteric 
truth,"  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall  told  his  Indian 
audiences,  to  whom  he  had  gone  to  "  set  forth 
the  innermost  essence  of  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ."  In  the  Lord's  idea  of  God  as  "  Our  Fa- 
ther" His  thought  and  feeHng  and  will  live  and 
move  and  have  their  being.  His  whole  life  and 
religion  grow  out  of  this  sense  of  the  Divine 
Fatherhood.  Out  of  this  assurance,  at  once  hum- 
ble and  proud,  Christianity  draws  its  vitality  and 
inspiration.  The  reality  of  our  religion  depends 
upon  the  reality  of  Jesus'  idea  of  God. 

But  the  thing  is  a  paradox.  At  first  glance,  it 
does  not  look  as  if  it  were  true.  Measured  by  the 
experience  of  the  senses  it  seems  to  fly  in  the  face 
of  congenital  dislocations,  shipwrecks,  the  exist- 
ence of  human  sharks,  and  the  fact  of  moral  ulcers 
which,  draped  in  satin,  are  rolled  along  on  rubber 

155 


156  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

tires.  The  Fatherhood  of  God  is  not  a  self-evi- 
dent fact;  and  no  one  knew  that  better  than  the 
Master.  That  is  the  point  of  the  parable,  *'  There 
was  in  a  city  a  judge,  who  feared  not  God,  and 
regarded  not  man :  and  there  was  a  widow  in  that 
city,  and  she  came  oft  unto  him,  saying.  Avenge 
me  of  mine  adversary.  And  he  would  not  for  a 
while:  but  afterward  he  said  within  himself, 
though  I  fear  not  God,  nor  regard  man;  yet  be- 
cause this  widow  troubleth  me,  I  will  avenge  her, 
lest  she  wear  me  out  by  her  continual  coming.'^ 
Jesus  suggests  that  there  is  a  good  deal  in  life 
which  reminds  one  of  those  law-courts  in  the 
Roman  provinces,  where  the  judge  was  unprinci- 
pled. There  are  times  when  it  seems  as  if  the  right 
was  in  a  condition  of  widowhood,  abandoned  to 
its  fate  by  a  God  who,  far  from  behaving  to  it  as 
a  loving  husband,  does  not  even  maintain  the 
character  of  a  just  judge  in  its  behalf.  He  who 
knew  that  God  does  care  dared  to  suggest  that 
sometimes  God  looks  as  if  He  did  not  care;  He 
allowed  that  there  are  circumstances  in  which  it 
seems  as  if  God  had  gone  over  to  the  enemies' 
side.  The  day  came  when  the  great  Christ  knew 
what  it  is  to  feel  that  way ;  on  Calvary  there  was  a 
black  moment  when  He  reached  for  the  Father's 
hand  and  missed  it,  and  cried,  "  My  God,  my  God, 
why  hast  Thou  forsaken  me  ? "  And  it  is  not 
only  the  wrong  which  round  us  lies  which  seems 


THE  PROOF  OF  JESUS'  IDEA  1 57 

to  quarrel  with  Jesus'  idea  of  the  Divine  Father- 
hood, there  is  the  guilt  within.  When  a  crimson 
sin  or  a  black  moral  failure  has  jolted  a  man's 
conceit  of  himself,  it  is  not  easy  to  believe  that  the 
All-mighty,  All-wise,  All-perfect  One  is  the  Fa- 
ther of  such  a  being.  The  best  of  men  and  the 
sanest  realize  that  they  are  of  the  same  clay  with 
the  felons  and  the  defectives;  and  though  it  may 
no  longer  be  sung  in  public  worship  Watt's  old 
hymn  rather  than  rapturous  repetition  of  the  creed 
sometimes  fits  our  mood, 

Alas,  and  did  my  Saviour  bleed, 

And  did  my  Sovereign  die? 
Would  He  devote  that  sacred  head 

For  such  a  worm  as  I  ? " 

It  is  not  obvious  that  God  is  a  Father  of  bound- 
less, gratuitous,  ungrudging  love.  So,  as  Dr. 
Harnack  says,  "  Either  it  is  nonsense,  or  it  is  the 
utmost  development  of  which  religion  is  capable." 
But  whether  it  is  nonsense  or  reality,  it  is  Jesus' 
idea  of  God.  The  question  is,  then,  how  do  we 
know  that  Jesus'  idea  of  God  is  true? 

We  know  that  Jesus'  idea  of  God  is  true  in  the 
same  way  that  we  know  that  anything  is  true.  A 
dish  of  food  is  set  before  us.  We  are  told  that  it 
is  nourishing.  Maybe  it  is ;  we  do  not  know ;  the 
only  way  we  can  prove  it  is  to  eat  it.  If  good 
digestion  follows  tastiness,  and  health  follows 
both,  then  we  know  that  the  cook  spoke  truly ;  the 


158  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

proof  of  the  pudding  is  the  eating  of  it.  You  are 
taught  that  the  square  on  the  hypothenuse  of  a 
right-angled  triangle  is  equal  to  the  sum  of  the 
squares  on  the  other  two  sides;  maybe  it  is;  you 
do  not  know ;  the  only  way  you  can  prove  it  is  to 
work  it  out.  You  lay  out  your  triangle  on  paper ; 
the  base  is  four  inches,  the  perpendicular  is  three, 
the  hypothenuse  is  five;  the  square  of  four  is  six- 
teen; the  square  of  three  is  nine,  and  sixteen  and 
nine  are  twenty-five,  which  is  the  square  on  the 
hypothenuse.  You  know  the  theorem  is  true  be- 
cause it  works.  The  plain  man  counts  anything 
true  that  makes  good  in  experience;  the  common 
test  of  truth  is  practicalness. 

And  science  has  the  identical  method.  First 
science  collects  specimens,  then  it  draws  an  infer- 
ence, then  it  makes  an  hypothesis  and  at  last  it  veri- 
fies the  hypothesis  by  experiment;  if  the  theory 
works,  science  settles  it  among  its  accepted  laws. 
It  was  in  1666  in  the  town  of  Woolsthorpe  that 
Isaac  Newton  noticed  an  apple  fall  from  a  tree. 
That  set  him  thinking  why  it  was  that  bodies  in 
falling  always  fell  toward  the  earth's  center.  He 
developed  a  theory  that  particles  of  matter  attract 
one  another  according  to  a  certain  mathematical 
rule.  Then  arose  the  question,  is  this  true?  If 
it  was  true  it  vv^ould  account  for  the  fact  that  the 
moon  was  retained  in  its  orbit  around  the  earth. 
So  Newton  began  a  series  of  experiments.  But  the 


THE  PROOF  OF  JESUS'  IDEA  1 59 

first  of  these  experiments  went  to  prove  that  gravi- 
tation did  not  work ;  and,  as  he  himself  says,  ''  I 
laid  aside  at  that  time  any  further  thoughts  of  this 
matter."  But  in  1679  Newton  was  involved  in  a 
discussion  which  led  him  to  think  again  about  his 
discarded  theory.  Sir  Christopher  Wren  tested 
it,  and  Halley  and  Hooke,  and  at  last  it  was  seen 
to  be  the  law  by  which  nature  always  worked. 
The  theory  had  been  true  all  along,  just  as  New- 
ton had  formulated  it  at  first;  the  hitch  in  the 
beginning  had  been  due  to  an  error  in  data  given 
to  him  by  an  assistant.  In  1686  the  Royal  So- 
ciety adopted  the  truth  of  the  law  of  gravitation 
as  "  past  dispute."  Why  had  Newton  first  thrown 
it  aside?  Because  it  appeared  not  to  work.  Why 
did  the  Royal  Society  finally  give  it  a  place  among 
the  recognized  laws  of  nature?  Because  it  worked. 
And  so  the  plain  man's  proof  and  the  scientist's, 
the  highest  proof  which  can  be  offered  for  any 
idea,  is  that  it  works. 

And  religion  uses  the  same  proof,  welcomes 
the  same  test.  "  Come  and  see,"  said  Philip, 
when  the  critical  Nathanael  said,  "  Can  any  good 
thing  come  out  of  Nazareth  ? "  When  John 
Baptist  first  met  Jesus  he  believed  in  Him  at  first 
sight.  But  not  long  after  that  first  meeting,  John 
Baptist  was  cast  into  prison,  and  the  gloom  of  that 
experience  bred  in  him  doubts  of  his  first  im- 
pression.    So  he  sent  friends  to  Jesus  asking,  is 


l6o  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

it  true?  "Art  Thou  He  that  cometh  or  look  we 
for  another  ? "  When  the  messengers  came  to 
Jesus  He  was  standing  where  the  village  folk  had 
gathered  against  His  coming  their  deaf  and  dumb, 
their  palsied  and  lunatic.  Pausing  in  His  gra- 
cious labor,  the  Master  replied,  "  Go  and  tell  John 
the  things  which  ye  hear  and  see ;  the  blind  receive 
their  sight  and  the  lame  walk,  the  lepers  are 
cleansed  and  the  deaf  hear,  and  the  dead  are 
raised  up,  and  the  poor  have  good  tidings  preached 
to  them."  The  Lord  met  the  challenge  with  the 
highest  proof;  if  He  claimed  anything.  He  made 
good. 

We  apply  this  test  of  truth  to  Jesus'  idea  of 
God.  What  will  it  do  with  the  man  who  believes 
it?  Will  it  make  any  practical  difference  to  a 
man  to  believe  that  God  is  his  Father  and  all 
men's?  Let  him  really  commit  himself  to  the 
idea  as  he  commits  himself  to  the  idea  that  two 
and  two  are  four,  what  will  happen  ?  Two  things 
will  happen,  the  man  will  become  more  a  man 
than  ever,  and  the  man  will  become  more  a 
brother  than  ever. 

The  man  who  believes  in  God's  Fatherhood 
will  be  more  a  man  than  ever.  That  is,  he 
will  me  less  animal,  more  human;  he  will 
live  less  for  the  things  that  rot  and  wear  out, 
and  more  for  the  things  which  abide,  the  timeless 
realities  of  faith  and  hope  and  love;  he  will  think 


THE  PROOF  OF  JESUS'  IDEA  l6l 

less  of  the  outward  life,  and  more  of  the  inward 
life,  less  of  comfort,  convenience,  prudence,  and 
profit,  more  of  character  and  conduct,  duty,  purity 
and  righteousness.  Calling  God  his  Father  will 
make  him  realize  that  God  cannot  live  without  him 
any  better  than  he  can  live  with  God.  In  God 
as  his  Eternal  kinsman  he  will  rediscover  his  in- 
dividuality and  revalue  his  personality.  In  the 
deep  sense  of  this  divine  relationship  he  will  find  a 
new  meaning  for  his  thought,  affection  and  will. 
For  the  first  time  he  will  really  know  himself, 
what  he  is,  what  he  is  made  for,  what  he  ought  to 
be. 

The  sense  of  this  eternal  kinship  will  not  mean 
mystic  absorption  in  the  Infinite,  loss  of  self  in  an 
Eternal  All;  but  it  will  mean  the  finding  of  self 
as  a  son  distinct,  individual,  personal  and  of  in- 
estimable worth  to  a  God  who  is  as  distinct,  in- 
dividual, personal  as  himself.  With  the  self- 
knowledge  will  come  a  self-appreciation;  there 
will  be  a  deepening  sensitiveness  to  sin  as  a  self- 
hurt,  as  a  perversion  of  his  high  purpose,  and  as 
a  violation  of  his  exalted  relationship.  With  the 
deepening  sense  of  sin  will  come  a  richer  humility, 
an  ever-growing  dependence  upon  the  Eternal 
Love,  a  strengthening  of  the  sense  of  union  with 
the  Unseen,  a  feeling  of  trust  that  makes  him  live 
without  whining,  greet  the  unknown  with  calm- 
ness, accept  the  universe  with  a  song.     He  will 


1 62  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

adapt  himself  graciously  to  whatever  condition  his 
Father  calls  him  to  occupy ;  he  will  go  abroad  fear- 
less, unfretful,  unanxious;  he  will  leave  the  future 
to  take  care  of  itself,  knowing  that  he  and  it  are 
in  the  hands  of  a  love  which  is  able  to  do  ex- 
ceeding abundantly  above  what  he  can  ask  or 
think.  Childlike  his  heart  will  upsoar,  his 
thoughts  outreach  for  a  closer  union  with  the  Fa- 
ther's Spirit.  In  a  word,  the  believer  in  God's 
Fatherhood  will  become  less  body,  more  soul,  less 
material,  more  spiritual;  he  will  live  as  a  man 
who  knows  he  has  a  body,  but  is  a  soul. 

But  to  live  in  this  way,  to  live  to  be  really 
spiritual,  all  through  and  through,  is  to  be  in  the 
current  of  the  universe's  upward  movement. 
Man,  says  science,  is  the  consummate  efflorescence 
of  the  age-long  process  of  evolution.  True,  this 
manhood  seems  yet  in  its  rudiments ;  it  is  not  yet 
unqualified  master  of  the  world  in  which  it  was 
born  to  reign ;  but  if  the  soul  be  not  destined  to  be 
nature's  enthroned  king,  science  knows  nothing 
more  worthy.  "  To  the  keenest  powers  of  mind 
and  microscope,  to  the  keenest  powers  of  labora- 
tory and  telescope  there  appears  no  sign  of  any 
higher  work  than  this  in  the  universe  —  the  grow- 
ing of  a  soul."  All  the  effort  of  the  world- 
building  forces  is  concentrated  on  the  culture  of 
the  spiritual  element  in  man.  Then,  to  live  as  the 
believer  in  God's  Fatherhood  should  live,  that  is, 


THE  PROOF  OF  JESUS'  IDEA  163 

to  master  self,  to  make  the  soul  drive  the  body,  is 
to  add  something  to  the  sum  of  the  soul  life  of  the 
world ;  it  is  to  be  true  to  the  omnipresent  spiritual 
trend  of  nature  and  human  nature;  it  is  to  be  in 
line  with  the  highest  work  we  can  find  being  done 
in  the  universe.  It  works,  then,  this  idea  of  God's 
Fatherhood ;  if  Jesus'  idea  of  God  is  the  source  of 
the  individual's  self-discovery  and  the  individual's 
self-mastery,  if  it  makes  him  true  to  the  noblest 
intention  of  the  world  as  we  know  it,  then  Jesus' 
idea  of  God  is  true. 

The  man  who  believes  in  God's  Fatherhood 
will  be  more  a  brother  than  ever.  Assume  what 
position  one  may  in  regard  to  Jesus'  gospel,  one 
thing  is  forever  true,  that  a  new  appreciation  of 
humanity  grows  up  out  of  the  practical  acceptance 
of  the  idea  that  God  is  "  Our  Father."  He  who 
says  "  Our  Father,"  really  meaning  that  all  men 
are  as  nearly  related  to  the  Eternal  as  himself, 
finds  a  deepening  reverence  for  his  fellows,  a  re- 
appraisement  of  their  value  in  terms  of  the  fif- 
teenth chapter  of  St.  Luke.  Because  God  is  all- 
related,  the  believer  is  all-related.  The  disciple 
becomes  unclassified.  He  can  know  no  rich  and 
poor,  no  class  and  mass,  no  society  and  submerged. 
Every  man  is  only  man,  the  imperishable  seed  of 
the  Eternal.  A  disciple  becomes  universal.  He 
can  know  no  foreigner  nor  native,  no  black  man 
nor  yellow  man,  no  white  man  nor  red  man ;  every 


1 64  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

man  is  only  man,  the  brother  worth  dying  for. 
The  disciple  becomes  catholic.  He  can  know  no 
churchman  nor  heathen,  nor  orthodox  nor  heretic, 
no  saint  nor  prodigal ;  every  man  is  only  man,  the 
child  of  ''  Our  Father."  To  say  "  Our  Father  " 
means  to  be  a  friend,  a  friend  of  every  man,  a 
friend  of  all  men,  without  regard  to  race,  condi- 
tion or  religion.  Love  becomes  the  master  pas- 
sion; personal  sacrifice  to  make  others  happier  or 
better,  the  daily  meat  and  drink. 

The  believer  in  Jesus'  God  identifies  himself 
with  the  world  sorrow  and  joy,  allies  himself 
with  the  world  struggle  and  victory.  The  sin  of 
the  world  he  will  hate  because  it  means  loss  to  the 
brothers,  and  loss  to  the  Father  who  loves  all  im- 
partially ;  but  hating  the  sin  he  will  love  the  sinner 
and  be  ready  to  lay  his  life  down  for  his  saving 
because  the  sinner  is  of  infinite  value  to  the  Di- 
vine parent.  He  will  bless  those  who  curse  him, 
pray  for  those  who  despitefully  use  him,  and  give 
to  rich  and  poor,  to  sick  and  well,  to  ignorant  and 
learned,  to  thankless  and  grateful,  his  time,  his 
power,  his  strength,  his  friendship  because  it  is 
the  family  way,  the  way  of  the  Father  who  sends 
His  rain  to  just  and  unjust  and  shines  His  sun  on 
good  and  evil.  He  will  reckon  every  degenerate, 
defective  and  dependent  life  a  pearl  of  great  price ; 
he  will  think  the  best  of  the  worst,  hope  the  best 
for  the  worst,  do  the  best  with  the  worst,  give 


THE  PROOF  OF  JESUS'  IDEA  1 65 

the  best  to  the  worst.  His  family  crest  will  be  a 
rude  Roman  Cross  stained  red  and  bearing  in 
pure  white  the  legend  "  Our  Father." 

But  to  live  in  this  way,  to  be  a  brother  all 
through  and  through  is  to  put  one's  self  in  line 
with  humanity's  upward  progress.  Man  the  spe- 
cies, says  history,  exists  for  man  the  individual. 
Sir  Henry  Maine  long  ago  made  it  clear  that  the 
development  of  society  has  been  uniform  in  the 
enrichment  of  the  individual's  value.  The  happi- 
ness of  society  now  depends  upon  the  happiness 
of  its  constituent  persons.  The  slum  is  a  horror 
to  the  avenue,  and  the  best  is  restless  until  the 
worst  is  better.  Then,  to  live  as  the  believer  in 
Jesus'  God  should  live,  to  increase  the  worth  of 
mankind,  to  feel  brotherhood  with  the  lowliest  as 
well  as  the  highest,  is  to  align  one's  self  with  the 
evident  purpose  of  this  scheme  of  things.  To 
make  a  soul  grow  where  it  looks  as  if  there  were 
only  a  body  of  brute  passions,  to  make  another 
life  know  its  divinity  and  claim  its  higher  life  is 
to  fit  into  the  sublimest  work  history  can  discover 
among  men.  It  works,  then,  this  idea  of  God's 
Fatherhood;  if  Jesus'  idea  of  God  is  the  central 
spring  of  inclusive  love  and  world  brotherhood, 
if  it  makes  one  a  sharer  in  the  most  beautiful 
work  human  nature  can  do,  then  Jesus'  idea  of 
God  is  true. 

Teach  the  God  of  Jesus  until  it  grows  into  be- 


1 66  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

lief  that  begets  acts,  and  the  soul  attains  self- 
mastery,  and  men  become  brothers.  Impregnate 
a  man's  will  with  the  idea  "  Our  Father,"  and  the 
man  becomes  more  spiritual,  more  neighborly. 
By  the  logic  of  science,  by  the  logic  of  common 
sense,  God  is  our  Father  of  boundless,  gratuitous, 
ungrudging  love.  The  Christian  life  is  the  final 
proof  of  the  Christian  truth.  If  the  world  has 
not  reached  the  proof  it  is  because  the  world  has 
never  lived  the  life.  But  the  life  has  been  lived. 
What  made  that  one  pure  Soul,  that  one  Per- 
fect Brother  must  be  real ;  the  source  of  the  man- 
hood of  the  Master,  the  brotherhood  of  the  Christ 
could  not  be  untrue.  The  ultimate  test  of  the 
Divine  Fatherhood  as  the  highest  idea  of  God 
is  the  divine  character  incarnate  in  a  human  life. 
That  Incarnation  has  been  achieved  once;  that 
Incarnation  having  been  achieved  once,  the  proof 
of  the  idea  is  in  every  man's  hand.  He  who 
doubts  the  Fatherhood  of  God  must  explain  the 
character  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  who  would  know 
God  as  "  Our  Father,"  has  the  deep  assurance 
of  personal  certainty,  has  the  test  within  reach  — 
he  is  to  live  in  the  world  as  a  child  in  a  Father's 
house,  he  is  to  live  in  the  world  as  a  child  in  a 
Father's  house  full  of  children.  "  If  any  man 
willeth  to  do  His  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  teach- 
ing, whether  it  is  of  God." 


HOW  A  MAN  MAY  KNOW  THE  GOD  AND 
FATHER  OF  JESUS 


"He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father." 

"If  a  man  love  me,  he  will  keep  my  word:  and  my 
Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will  come  unto  him,  and 
make  our  abode  with  him." 


HOW  A  MAN  MAY  KNOW  THE  GOD  AND 
FATHER  OF  JESUS 

It  is  one  thing  to  know  about  an  object;  it  is 
another  thing  to  know  the  object.  In  the  one 
case  you  go  round  about  the  object,  but  never 
get  into  touch  with  it.  In  the  other  case  you 
touch  the  object  and  become  one  with  it.  In  the 
first  instance  you  see  the  thing  as  a  fact;  in  the 
second  instance  you  feel  the  thing  as  a  force. 
To  know  about  God  is  theology.  To  know  God 
is  religion.  Theology  knows  about  God  as  a 
fact.  Religion  knows  God  as  a  Father.  Evi- 
dently it  is  a  greater  thing  to  have  a  religion  than 
a  theology.  Science  has  a  theology,  and  philoso- 
phy and  history;  every  man  has  a  theology;  but 
not  every  man  has  a  religion. 


X' 


"A  fire-mist  and   a  planet, 
A  jelly-fish  and  a  saurian, 
A  crystal  and  a  cell. 
And  caves  where  the  cavemen  dwell; 
Then  a  sense  of  law  and  beauty 
And  a  face  turned  from  the  clod, — 
Some  call  it   Evolution, 
And  others  call  it  God. 
169 


I/O  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

Like  tides  on  a  crescent  sea-beach 
When  the  moon  is  new  and  thin, 
Into  our  hearts  high  yearnings 
Come  welling  and  surging  in, — 
Come   from  the  mystic  ocean, 
Whose  rim  no  foot  has  trod, — 
Some  of  us  call  it  Longing, 
And  others  call  it  God. 

A  picket  frozen  on  duty,. 

A  mother  starved   for  her  brood,— 

Socrates  drinking  the  hemlock, 

And  Jesus  on  the  rood ; 

And  millions  who,  humble  and  nameless, 

The  straight,  hard  pathway  trod, — 

Some  call  it  Consecration, 

And  others  call  it  God." 

Here  is  a  difference,  the  difference  between  the 
knowledge  an  educated  born-blind  man  has  about 
light,  and  the  knowledge  a  plain  man  with  two 
good  eyes  has  of  the  sun.  The  question  is  how 
can  the  man  who  only  knows  about  God  come 
to  know  God ;  how  can  he  who  has  said  only  "  O 
God  "  learn  to  say  "  O  God  thou  art  my  God  " ; 
how  can  one  become  conscious  of  that  ineffable 
relationship  of  personal  peace  and  splendid  use- 
fulness which  Jesus  feels  in  calling  God,  "  Our 
Father"? 

Knowledge  of  God  proceeds  along  the  beaten 
path  of  all  knowing.  If  one  desires  to  make  God 
his  own,  he  must  go  about  it  in  the  same  way  as 
he  would  to  make  electricity  his  own,  or  a  dia- 


HOW  A  MAN  MAY  KNOW  THE  FATHER       IJl 

mond,  or  a  dinner,  or  health,  or  friendship.  The 
God-seeker  appropriates  the  supreme  value  in  the 
same  manner  as  he  appropriates  any  life  value. 
There  are  three  simple  steps  to  be  taken  in  know- 
ing anything :  —  first,  the  one  who  would  know 
must  trust  the  expert  who  knows ;  second,  he  must 
apply  himself  to  the  laws  of  the  object  as  the  ex- 
pert makes  them  clear;  third,  he  must  experiment 
with  the  object  along  lines  which  the  expert  sug- 
gests. 

The  man  who  would  know  must  trust  the  ex- 
pert who  knows.  This  is  the  first  step  in  ac- 
quiring any  knowledge.  All  life  begins  in  trust. 
The  life  of  the  forest  begins  in  trust.  Any 
woodsman  knows  how  a  fawn  will  follow,  and 
even  feed  out  of  one's  hand  where  the  old  doe 
would  flee  in  fear.  The  life  of  the  waters  be- 
gins in  trust.  When  at  the  fish-hatchery  I  have 
held  my  finger  gently  over  the  tray  containing 
the  three  months  old  trout  and  seen  the  w^ee  wrig- 
glers cluster  about  that  spot  on  the  surface.  Trust 
is  sheer  instinct;  it  does  not  wait  for  reason; 
it  precedes  affection;  it  is  born  with  us  full 
grown;  to  trust  is  to  act  naturally,  it  is  to  move 
along  the  line  of  least  resistance.  So  the  first 
step  in  all  knowing  is  trust. 

A  lad  determines  to  know  electricity;  that  is 
he  wants  to  feel  that  electricity  exists  for  him, 
that  he  can  use  it,  light  homes  with  it,  send  it 


172  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

over  the  sea  with  messages,  harness  it  to  wheels 
and  make  it  haul  loads  across  continents.  So  the 
lad  consults  an  expert.  He  knows  the  expert 
because  the  expert  makes  electricity  work,  he  does 
with  electricity  what  the  lad  wants  to  do.  The 
expert  lights  homes  with  it,  he  sends  it  running 
round  the  world  with  men's  messages;  he  bids 
it  carry  freight  and  passengers  from  city  to  city. 
And  the  lad  goes  to  this  expert  and  takes  him  at 
his  word,  trusts  him  completely  and  so  begins 
to  know  electricity.  And  in  this  same  simple 
way  by  which  every  value  of  life  is  appropriated 
a  man  begins  to  know  God.  He  determines  to 
trust  the  expert  in  God,  that  is  the  one  who  knows 
God  as  he  would  know  Him,  who  can  do  with 
God  the  things  that  he  would  do.  The  proof 
that  Jesus  is  the  expert  in  God  is  in  the  begin- 
ner's hands.  To  Jesus  God  was  more  real  than 
mother.  Once  when  she  chided  Him  for  for- 
getting her.  He  answered  wonderingly,  "  Wist  ye 
not  that  I  must  be  in  my  Father's  house?" 
He  believed  that  God  and  He  were  related  as 
Father  and  Son,  that  the  Father's  business  was 
His  business,  that  His  message  was  the  Father's 
word.  And  His  idea  worked.  By  that  idea  of 
the  divine  Fatherhood  He  lived  as  one  who  knew 
no  inw^ard  unrest;  He  had  no  hesitation  in  the 
face  of  life's  pain,  no  quarrel  with  life's  hard- 
ship.    The  outward  life  seemed  to  Him  only  an  ac- 


HOW  A  MAN  MAY  KNOW  THE  FATHER         173 

cident,  a  temporary  incident  in  the  career  of  the 
inward,  the  inward  was  the  real  thing,  not  time 
but  eternity  was  its  sphere  of  activity.  And  so 
the  thought  of  the  Infinite  Father  brought  Him 
a  deep  peace  which  passed  understanding  and 
made  Him  more  manly  than  any  man  who  had 
ever  lived. 

And  this  idea  of  God's  Fatherly  care  made 
Him  more  a  brother  than  any  other  man. 
He  worked  for  no  wage,  for  no  thanks  even,  but 
only  because  every  last  prodigal  was  worth  while 
as  the  Father's  child  and  His  brother;  He  be- 
came known  as  the  man  who  "  went  about  doing 
good  " ;  He  was  nicknamed  the  "  friend  of  pub- 
licans and  sinners."  So  Jesus'  knowledge  of  God 
made  a  difference,  a  difference  in  His  own  life 
and  others' ;  and  it  is  that  practical  difference 
His  knowledge  made  which  proves  Him  to  be 
the  soul's  expert  in  God.  The  beginning  of  re- 
ligion is  taking  the  Master  at  His  word  about 
God.  The  first  step  in  knowing  the  Father  is 
trusting  the  Son. 

But  after  trust  comes  attention,  application. 
We  appropriate  what  we  attend  to ;  we  know  what 
we  apply  ourselves  to.  Here  is  the  student  of 
electricity.  He  has  gone  to  the  expert  to  take 
his  word  for  granted.  But  that  is  only  the  be- 
ginning. Now  he  must  attend  to  the  teaching 
about  electricity;  he  must  apply  his  mind  to  the 


174  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

Study  of  its  habits,  laws  and  ways  of  working 
as  these  are  elucidated  by  the  expert;  he  must 
familiarize  himself  with  the  instructor's  idea. 
Only  so  much  of  his  teacher's  knowledge  will  be- 
come his  as  he  attends  to.  If  the  student  spends 
all  his  time  in  outside  work,  if  he  is  all  the  time 
thinking  how  he  will  dress,  or  what  he  will 
eat,  if  he  uses  up  all  his  energy  on  the  athletic 
field  he  will  not  know  electricity;  he  must  dili- 
gently concentrate  his  thought  upon  the  lectures 
and  text-books.  Application  is  the  everlasting 
price  of  knowledge.  A  man  loves  music  to-day; 
he  can  understand  what  Handel  meant  w^hen  he 
said  that  as  he  wrote  the  Hallelujah  Chorus  he 
saw  the  heavens  opened  and  the  angels  and  the 
great  God  Himself.  But  this  man  can  remember 
the  first  time  he  heard  "  The  Messiah."  He  went 
to  the  music  hall  because  a  friend  told  him  that 
he  ought  to  go.  As  he  listened  to  the  oratorio 
for  the  first  time,  he  wondered  whether  the  stu- 
pidity was  chargeable  to  the  friend  who  enjoyed 
it  so  deeply  or  to  himself  to  whom  it  was  just  so 
much  meaningless  sound.  And  yet  here  and 
there  some  strain  came  out  and  stayed  with  him 
after  he  had  gone  away,  and  that  strain  kept 
singing  itself  over  and  over  to  him.  Then  be- 
cause he  wanted  to  love  music,  and  to  under- 
stand it,  he  went  again  and  again,  and  the  thing 
grew  on  him,  and  one  night  as  he  sat  in  the  hall, 


HOW  A  MAN  MAY  KNOW  THE  FATHER      1 75 

it  seemed  as  if  the  walls  fell  away,  and  the  air 
was  full  of  a  drift  of  white-winged  angels,  and 
the  sound  of  voices  which  no  man  could  number 
was  coming  down  out  of  the  skies  and  singing 
in  his  soul,  "  The  Lord  God  Omnipotent  reign- 
eth." 

And  in  this  same  way  a  man  must  go  on  to 
know  the  Father  of  Jesus  Christ.  One  must  stay 
with  Him  until  His  idea  of  God  becomes  familiar 
to  him,  thought  of  his  thought,  master  of  his 
affection.  He  cannot  get  that  idea  and  keep  it  if 
he  spends  all  his  time  in  the  mere  making  of  a 
living,  if  he  uses  the  world  as  a  mere  kitchen, 
or  office,  or  work-shop,  or  play-ground  and  never 
pulls  down  the  screens  and  closes  the  doors  and 
uses  life  for  a  school-room  where  he  shall  see  no 
man  save  Jesus  only.  The  God-seeker  must 
dwell  in  the  student  atmosphere;  he  must  take 
some  time  every  day  to  think,  to  let  his  undis- 
tracted  eye  rest  on  the  Master  till  He  fills  his 
vision  stern  as  the  Judgment  Day  yet  infinitely 
gentle,  solemn  as  Gethsemane  and  yet  transfig- 
ured with  Easter  glory,  his  Master,  Victim,  Eter- 
nal Judge.  Once  Wordsworth  chided  England 
for  losing  her  love  of  nature  — 

"The  world  is  too  much  with  us;  late  and  soon, 
Getting  and  spending  we  lay  waste  our  powers; 
Little  we  see  in  nature  that  is  ours, 
We  have  given  our  hearts  away  a  sordid  boon." 


176  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

Change  ''  nature  "  in  the  third  Hne  to  "  Jesus  "  and 
it  is  just  as  true.  He  who  would  know  Jesus'  God 
as  the  Master  knew  Him  must  not  only  trust  the 
Master,  but  he  must  study  the  Master  as  He  works 
with  God. 

Then  after  trust  and  attention  comes  experi- 
ment. He  who  would  know  must  work  with  the 
object  along  the  lines  which  the  expert  has  made 
clear.  This  is  the  climax,  the  ultimate  step  by 
which  the  student  becomes  the  worker.  It  is  the 
experimenter  to  whom  knowledge  about  becomes 
knowledge  of;  it  is  the  man  who  works  with  the 
fact  who  feels  its  force.  The  student  has  trusted 
the  electrician;  he  has  studied  his  idea  until  it 
has  become  thought  of  his  thought ;  he  has  learned 
the  habits  of  electricity  so  that  he  knows  what  to 
expect  of  it,  what  it  will  expect  of  him.  Now 
it  remains  only  for  him  to  work  with  the  mys- 
terious fluid,  to  obey  what  he  has  been  taught  to 
believe.  He  goes  out  into  life;  he  gives  this 
electricity  wires,  insulators,  dynamos,  batteries, 
and  lo,  he  knows  it,  he  uses  it,  it  is  his ;  it  is  part 
of  himself;  he  is  part  of  it.  With  it  he  can  make 
for  men  another  eye  to  see  what  their  two  eyes 
could  not  possibly  discover;  with  it  he  can  give  to 
men  another  voice  with  which  they  speak  farther 
than  their  own  voice  could  possibly  reach ;  vv  ith  it 
he  can  give  to  men  other  limbs  so  that  they  can 
go  where  their  own  limbs  can  not  possibly  carry 


HOIV  A  MAN  MAY  KNOW  THE  FATHER         177 

them.  For  this  experimenter,  this  man  who 
works  with  electricity,  it  is  no  longer  a  mere  fact 
known  about,  it  is  a  force  known  and  felt.  It 
is  his  obedience,  his  willing  and  active  commitment 
to  it  which  has  made  the  change  between  him 
and  it. 

What  can  that  mean  for  the  God-seeker  but 
that  he  must  work  with  God  as  Jesus  gives  us 
to  understand  God,  that  he  shall  use  God  as  his 
Father  and  the  Father  of  all  men.  It  means  that 
he  shall  live  in  the  world  as  a  child  and  not  as 
an  orphan ;  he  shall  live  as  if  God  lived  and  cared 
how  he  did,  where  he  w^ent  and  what  he  had;  he 
shall  live  without  fret  or  fear;  he  shall  live  as  a 
share-holder  in  the  eternal  and  not  as  a  slave 
of  time.  It  means  too  that  he  shall  live  in  the 
world  as  a  brother  of  all  men;  the  honor  of  the 
family  shall  be  his  ideal,  the  glory  of  the  Father 
his  joy,  the  happiness  and  holiness  of  the  brothers 
his  untiring  care  and  service;  he  shall  feel  the 
world's  claim  on  him,  the  world's  risrht  to  his 
wealth,  his  health,  his  learning,  his  faith;  he  shall 
be  a  lifter  not  a  leaner,  a  giver  not  a  getter. 

It  is  the  persistent  experimenter  who  gets  the 
proof.  Sixty  years  ago  no  human  eye  had  seen 
Neptune,  that  blazing  orb  which  unobserved  stands 
sentry  on  the  frontier  of  our  solar  system. 
Men  thought,  maybe  something  like  it  might  be 
there,  but  no  one  knew,  no  one  dared  say,  because 


178  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

no  one  had  seen.  On  the  evening  of  August  31, 
1846,  Le  Verrier  the  French  mathematician  sat  in 
his  library  deep  in  calculations  along  the  line  of 
the  law  of  gravitation.  Before  he  quit  his  room, 
he  bent  over  a  map  of  the  skies  and  making  a 
mark  where  now  we  know  Neptune  to  be  he  told 
the  world  that  they  would  find  a  planet  there; 
but  no  eye  saw  it,  no  glass  discovered  it.  Some- 
time after  a  German  astronomer  with  a  new  tel- 
escope pointed  it  at  the  exact  spot  indicated  on 
Le  Verrier's  map,  and  there  flew  down  the  brass 
tube  the  first  ray  from  the  great  planet  which  ever 
pricked  human  vision.  Experimentation  proved 
what  sight  seemed  to  declare  untrue. 

So  for  the  man  who  will  take  Jesus'  idea  of 
God  and  work  with  it,  live  in  the  world  as  in  a 
Father's  house,  live  in  the  world  as  in  a  Father's 
house  full  of  children,  live  in  trust  and  love  there 
will  come  the  vision  of  the  Father's  hand  on 
everything  in  life  and  death.  To  know  Jesus' 
peace  and  Jesus'  power,  one  must  know  Jesus' 
God;  for  this  knowledge  there  are  three  steps, 
trust,  attention,  obedience,  and  of  these  three  the 
greatest  is  obedience,  for  it  is  by  loving  and  only 
by  loving  that  a  man  can  know  that  God  is  love. 


XI 


THE    SERIOUSNESS    OF    BELIEVING    IN 
THE  GOD  AND  FATHER  OF  JESUS 


"  Ye  therefore  shall  be  perfect,  as  your  heavenly  Father 
is  perfect." 


XI 

THE    SERIOUSNESS    OF    BELIEVING   IN 
THE  GOD  AND  FATHER  OF  JESUS 

There  is  no  Christian  doctrine  for  which  you 
could  get  so  many  men  to  vote  as  the  Father- 
hood of  God.  Nothing  can  exhaust  the  name 
"  Father."  It  is  the  gladdest,  but  the  greatest, 
the  dearest,  but  the  deepest,  the  sweetest,  but  the 
solemnest,  name  men  can  frame  to  fit  God.  We 
cannot  put  too  much  into  the  word,  but  we  can 
put  too  little  into  it. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  men  who  put  too  little 
into  the  idea  of  God's  Fatherhood.  The  first 
man  is  he  who  prefers  to  think  of  God  as  judge. 
To  call  God  a  Father,  he  thinks,  is  to  enthrone 
indulgence.  He  views  the  doctrine  with  suspi- 
cion lest  it  rob  God  of  authority,  draw  the  red 
out  of  sin,  and  relieve  the  cautery  of  conscience. 
This  man  deplores  the  universal  note  in  the 
preaching  of  Jesus'  idea  of  God.  If  he  preached 
it,  he  would  make  it  an  esoteric  doctrine  to  be 
mentioned  only  to  those  who  had  been  initiated 
by  conversion  into  the  secrets  of  grace. 

i8i 


l82  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

The  second  man  who  puts  too  little  into  the 
name  "  Father  "  is  he  who  sees  nothing  in  Father- 
hood but  sentiment.  He  thinks  God  too  soft- 
hearted to  rule,  a  doting  grandfather  too  weak 
to  punish.  This  man  has  the  idea  that  love  is 
too  tender  to  blame  a  man  for  edging  off  when 
goodness  hurts,  costs,  or  is  unprofitable.  For  this 
second  man  the  thought  of  God  as  a  Father 
makes  life  a  game,  the  world  a  playground  and 
the  infinite  pity  ground  for  infinite  excuse.  To 
these  two  it  needs  to  be  said,  this  article  of  the 
creed,  ''  I  believe  in  God  the  Father  Almighty  " 
is  the  most  precious  and  the  most  perilous  for  us 
to  repeat,  and  for  three  reasons. 

First  —  it  is  a  serious  thing  to  believe  in  Jesus' 
idea  of  God's  Fatherhood,  because  he  who  claims 
God  as  Father  must  be  ready  to  answer  the  ques- 
tion. What  kind  of  a  son  are  you? 

Fatherhood  is  something  that  we  never  think 
of  when  we  talk  about  animals.  The  parent  of  a 
boy  we  call  a  father.  The  parent  of  a  foal  we 
call  a  sire.  Here  is  a  difference.  The  idea 
"  father "  suggests  care,  affection  and  fore- 
thought. The  idea  "  sire "  suggests  only  pro- 
creation. We  do  not  expect  the  colt's  sire  to  care 
for  him,  to  exhibit  affection  or  to  take  thought 
for  his  future.  But  if  a  man  treated  his  son  as 
a  horse  treats  his  young  we  would  say  of  that 
man,  he  has  never  been  a  father  to  the  boy.     He 


THE  SERIOUSNESS  OF  BELIEVING        183 

had  done  all  that  the  animal  did  for  his  offspring, 
but  he  had  left  undone  those  things  which  make 
fatherhood.  And  those  things  involve  character, 
they  imply  faith,  hope  and  love,  they  are  not 
physical,  but  spiritual  activities. 

By  the  same  sign  you  never  call  a  young  horse 
a  "  son  " ;  he  is  a  "  foal."  The  idea  "  son  "  sug- 
gests gratitude,  loyalty  and  obedience.  The  idea 
of  "  foal "  suggests  only  animal  descent.  We 
do  not  expect  the  colt  to  exhibit  gratitude  to  his 
sire,  to  abide  in  the  same  stable  or  to  evidence 
obedience  to  him.  But  if  a  youth  treated  his 
father  as  a  young  horse  treats  his  parents  we 
would  say  of  that  youth,  he  is  inhuman.  He 
might  do  all  that  the  animal  did  for  his  progeni- 
tor, but  he  would  have  left  undone  those  things 
which  make  human  sonship.  And  those  things 
involve  character,  they  imply  trust,  affection  and 
filial  submission,  and  these  things  are  not  physical, 
but  spiritual  activities. 

So  then,  fatherhood  involves  a  relationship  and 
that  relationship  involves  something  owed  on  both 
sides.  If  I  have  a  father,  there  is  due  me  from 
that  father  all  that  fatherhood  implies.  If  I  am 
a  son  there  is  due  my  father  all  that  sonship  im- 
plies. This  relationship  involves  mutual  care, 
affection  and  taste.  It  claims  reciprocity  in  char- 
acter. Can  the  relationship  with  God  expect  less  ? 
The  idea  of  fatherhood  is  like  the  general  rule 


1 84  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

about  the  square  of  the  hypothenuse  of  a  right- 
angled  triangle.  Whether  it  be  a  right-angled 
triangle  drawn  on  a  child's  blackboard  or  a  right- 
angled  triangle  formed  by  three  stars  in  the  Milky 
Way  the  rule  works  —  the  square  on  the  hypoth- 
enuse of  a  right-angled  triangle  is  equal  to  the 
sum  of  the  squares  of  the  other  two  sides.  This 
father  and  son  relationship,  like  mathematics, 
works  everywhere,  on  the  earth,  in  the  heavens. 

I  cannot  say  "  Father,"  until  I  have  begun  to 
answer  his  call  "  son  " ;  His  Fatherhood  does  not 
exist  for  me  until  I  have  made  my  sonship  exist  for 
Him,  until  I  have  shared  in  His  character.  He 
is  spirit  and  I  must  be  spirit  too;  something  more 
than  a  body  to  be  warmed,  clothed  and  fed ;  some- 
thing more  than  an  animal  to  fight  like  a  dog, 
root  like  a  pig,  sing  like  a  bird,  or  hive  like  a 
bee.  I  must  be  the  child  of  the  Eternal  Spirit, 
the  son  of  Infinite  Faith,  Infinite  Hope,  Infinite 
Love.  A  father's  rights  are  unquestioned,  abso- 
lute, ungiven.  He  has  the  right  to  expect  every- 
thing to  be  reciprocated  that  He  has  given  to  us. 
The  old  fundamental  need  of  personal  struggle, 
personal  consecration,  personal  holiness  is  doubled. 
Life  is  more  critical  than  ever.  I  have  no  loop- 
hole to  crawl  out  of;  the  lines  are  tightly  drawn, 
I  must  be  in  my  world  what  He  is  in  His  uni- 
verse. 

From  Sinai,  it  is  said,  the  smoke  ascended  as 


THE  SERIOUSNESS  OF  BELIEVING       1 85 

from  a  furnace,  and  the  mountain  quaked  greatly 
when  out  of  a  thick  cloud  with  thunderings  and 
lightnings  the  King  gave  His  command  to  Israel. 
On  a  hillside  sweet  with  the  peaceful  odors  of 
plowed  field,  quiet  save  for  the  pipings  of  the 
birds,  under  a  blue  Syrian  sky  which  mirrored  its 
fair  sun  in  Galilee's  lake,  the  Father  spoke  through 
His  great  Son  His  will  for  the  family.  Yet,  I 
think  Sinai's  "  thou  shalt  not  kill  "  were  easier  to 
listen  to  than  Jesus'  *'  blessed  are  the  merciful," 
the  King's  words,  "  thou  shalt  not  commit  adul- 
tery," less  than  the  Father's  "  the  pure  in  heart 
shall  see  God,"  the  Sovereign's  word,  "  thou  shalt 
have  no  other  gods  before  me  "  as  an  ant-hill  to 
the  snow-capped  Alpine  summit,  "  Ye  shall  be 
perfect  as  your  heavenly  Father  is  perfect." 

It  is  a  serious  thing  to  believe  in  Jesus'  idea  of 
God's  Fatherhood,  because  he  who  claims  God  as 
his  Father  must  be  ready  to  answer  this  question : 
What  kind  of  a  son  are  you? 

Second  —  It  is  a  serious  thing  to  believe  in 
Jesus'  idea  of  God's  Fatherhood,  because  it  com- 
mits a  man  to  living  his  life  in  absolute  unself- 
ishness. Given  a  father,  and  what  follows? 
What  an  alchemist  is  a  new-born  babe.  The 
touch  of  those  tiny  fingers  transmutes  the  base 
metal  of  thought  of  self  into  the  pure  gold  of 
thought  of  the  unself.  From  the  moment  when 
his  first  babe's  first  cry  summons  the  instinct  of 


1 86  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

fatherhood  in  a  man's  bosom  that  man  must 
deny  himself,  he  must  henceforth  lose  himself  in 
another.  Love,  once  a  mere  passion  of  posses- 
sion, is  re-born  a  passion  for  self-sacrifice.  This 
father  has  a  family,  and  it  is  the  family,  the  home, 
the  health  of  the  whole  which  become  his  chief  est 
concern.  Given  a  son,  and  what  follows?  What 
must  be  the  true  son's  concern?  Surely  it  is  the 
same  as  his  father's.  The  father  no  more  than  the 
son,  the  son  no  less  than  the  father,  exists  for  that 
home.  He  must  feel  how  every  thought,  word 
and  act,  though  made  in  secret,  is  adding  to  or 
subtracting  something  from  the  honor  of  the 
home.  It  is  this  mutual  instinct  of  being  sup- 
ported and  supporting  which  makes  us  sing 
"  There  is  no  place  like  home." 

So  here,  again,  the  axiom  of  the  earthly  re- 
lationship we  call  home  is  true  for  the  celestial 
relationship  we  call  religion.  This  is  the  exten- 
sion of  the  old  fifth  commandment  in  religion  — 
"  Love  your  enemies  and  pray  for  them  that  per- 
secute you;  that  ye  may  be  sons  of  your  Father 
who  is  in  heaven:  for  He  maketh  His  sun  to  rise 
on  the  evil  and  the  good,  and  sendeth  rain  on  the 
just  and  the  unjust." 

Like  God  the  Father,  the  Son  must  have  a  love 
that  is  boundless,  gratuitous  and  ungrudging. 
The  family,  not  one  favorite  here  and  another 
there,  but  all  the  members  must  receive  without 


THE  SERIOUSNESS  OF  BELIEVING      187 

bias,  be  blessed  without  prejudice,  be  cared  for 
without  favoritism.  The  son  must  live  so  that 
no  man  can  be  poorer,  no  woman  sadder,  no  child 
more  wretched  for  aught  he  has  done  or  left  un- 
done. He  must  live  so  that  through  his  words 
and  deeds  men  may  see  truth,  reverence  purity, 
and  possess  the  means  of  happiness,  and  he  must 
so  live  not  for  profit,  prudence  nor  popularity ;  he 
must  so  live  though  it  means  a  curse,  a  crown  of 
thorns  and  a  cross. 

And  if  we  seek  to  know  what  that  means,  what 
sonship  involves,  we  go  to  Him  who  taught  us 
to  say  "  Our  Father."  His  life  is  just  spent  in 
going  about  doing  good ;  He  does  so  much  for  the 
imperfect,  the  defective,  the  degenerate,  that  they 
call  Him  "  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners."  He 
spends  His  life  giving,  giving  until  when  He 
comes  to  die  He  has  nothing  worth  gambling  for 
but  His  cloak.  That  day  He  died,  the  men  He 
had  lived  for  led  Him  away  like  a  lamb  to  the 
slaughter.  And  while  they  were  making  the 
wounds  for  Him  to  hang  by  He  prayed,  "  Father 
forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do." 
And  that  is  the  living  picture  of  sonship,  and 
what  it  means  to  say,  "I  believe  in  God  the 
Father  Almighty." 

Those  who  fear  this  broad  truth  lest  it  make 
men  morally  slothful,  those  who  greet  the  Sermon 
on  the   Mount  boisterously  as   ''religion   enough 


1 88  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

for  me/'  must  see  what  the  sonship  is  to  which 
this  idea  of  God  summons  us.  Standing  with 
His  arms  around  poverty,  uncleanness  and  social 
leprosy,  the  Father's  great  Son  calls:  "Follow 
me." 

It  is  a  serious  thing  to  believe  in  Jesus'  idea  of 
God's  Fatherhood,  because  he  who  claims  God  as 
his  Father  is  committed  to  living  his  life  in  abso- 
lute  unselfishness. 

In  the  last  place  —  it  is  a  serious  thing  to  be- 
lieve in  Jesus'  idea  of  God's  Fatherhood,  because 
it  means  that  God's  perfectness  consists  in  His 
impartial  love  and  love  is  the  most  awful  thing 
in  the  world.  It  has  been  said  "  Be  afraid  of  the 
love  that  loves  you;  it  is  either  your  heaven  or 
your  hell.  The  lives  of  men  are  never  the  same 
after  they  have  let  themselves  be  loved;  if  they 
are  not  better  they  are  worse.  For  this  is  the 
mystery  of  love,  its  paradox  —  while  it  is  the 
greatest  thing  in  the  world  it  is  the  most  help- 
less." For  the  love  of  her  child,  without  thought  of 
the  cost,  a  mother  would  give  her  own  life  in  ex- 
change; and  yet  she  must  stand  at  its  death  bed 
with  helpless  hands  when  the  heart  spring  un- 
winds and  the  little  life  runs  down.  A  father 
would  give  his  fortune,  his  blood  to  keep  his  son's 
heart  clean  and  white,  but  all  his  paternal  passion 
cannot  check  that  son's  mad  pace,   if  the  boy's 


THE  SERIOUSNESS  OF  BELIEVING         189 

lusts  take  the  bit  between  their  teeth  and  drag 
him  along  the  edge  of  the  moral  precipice.  A 
son  may  leave  home ;  a  despot  can  drag  him  back ; 
a  father  can  only  wait  and  watch  and  keep  the 
door  ajar.  We  shrink  to  apply  all  we  know  of  the 
weakness  of  human  love  to  the  divine.  Yet 
it  was  through  a  man  the  Father  made  His  love 
plain  to  us.  He  came,  the  Christ,  to  His  own 
and  they  received  Him  not.  He  loved  His 
own,  loved  them  to  the  end,  and  yet  at  the  end 
they  deserted  Him,  betrayed  Him,  hung  Him  on 
a  cross. 

The  Tuesday  before  the  Friday  when  they 
nailed  Him  between  two  thieves,  He  was  stand- 
ing in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem.  Did  He  love  that 
fair,  rebellious  city?  We  may  never  know  how 
great  was  that  love.  Could  He  save  that  imper- 
illed city?  Jerusalem  had  bound  Love's  hands 
with  indifference  so  that  He  could  not  reach  out 
to  rescue  her ;  she  had  tethered  His  feet  with  hate 
so  that  He  could  only  stand  still  and  watch  her 
singing  into  the  gulf  that  Titus  was  to  dig. 
Stand  close  to  the  Christ  as  He  speaks  —  you  see 
He  is  draining  love's  bitterest  cup;  He  is  realiz- 
ing love's  helplessness,  "  it  is  the  wail  of  a  heart 
wounded  because  its  love  has  been  despised  "  and 
it  cannot  avert  the  doom  which  impends  over  those 
it  loves.     '*  Oh,  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem !  how  often 


190  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

would  I  have  gathered  thy  children  as  a  hen 
gathered  her  chickens,  and  ye  would  not.  Be- 
hold, your  house  is  left  unto  you  desolate." 

Men  say  they  cannot  believe  in  a  hell,  because 
a  father  never  could  send  a  child  to  dwell  there. 
The  inference  is  true.  The  Father  never  has  sent 
and  never  will  send  men  to  misery,  but  that  makes 
a  hell  no  less  real.  When  the  sun  shines  on  a 
thing  and  it  does  not  grow,  we  know  that  thing 
is  dead.  When  love  breathes  on  a  life  and  that 
life  does  not  respond,  w^e  know  that  the  soul  in  it 
is  stone.  "  Believe,  then,"  as  a  great  liberal  theo- 
logian puts  it,  *'  in  hell,  because  you  believe  in  the 
love  of  God  —  not  in  a  hell  to  which  God  con- 
demns men  of  His  will  and  pleasure,  but  a  hell  into 
which  men  cast  themselves  from  the  very  face 
of  His  love  in  Jesus  Christ.  The  place  has  been 
painted  as  a  place  of  fires.  But  when  we  con- 
template that  men  come  to  it  with  the  holiest 
flames  in  their  nature  quenched,  we  shall  justly 
feel  that  it  is  rather  a  dreary  waste  of  ash  and 
cinder,  strewn  with  snow  —  some  ribbed  and 
frosted  arctic  zone,  silent  in  death  for  there  is  no 
life  there,  and  there  is  no  life  there  because  there 
is  no  love,  and  no  love  because  men  in  rejecting 
or  abusing  her  have  slain  their  own  power  ever 
again  to  feel  her  presence." 

It  is  a  serious  thing  to  believe  in  the  Father- 
hood of  God,  because  this  belief  involves  sonship, 


THE  SERIOUSNESS  OF  BELIEVING        191 

and  sonship  involves  brotherhood,  and  brother- 
hood involves  living  for  the  spirit  behind  things, 
for  the  higher  life,  the  eternal  kind  on  which 
death  lays  no  hand,  on  which  the  grave  has  no 
claim. 

Oh,  the  exactingness  of  this  service.  If  a  man 
would  have  an  easy  religion  let  him  not  take  this 
article  with  which  to  begin  his  creed  —  "I  be- 
lieve in  God  the  Father  Almighty."  For  if  he 
give  himself  to  a  Father  God,  a  God  who  loves  as 
did  the  Man  of  Nazareth,  his  "  yeses  "  and  "  noes  " 
his  ideas  of  right  and  wrong  will  be  searched  with 
fingers  of  fire,  he  will  hear  a  voice  calling  to  his 
thoughts,  his  wishes,  his  will,  "  higher,"  "  higher," 
he  will  see  a  vision  of  an  ideal  and  he  will  feel 
that  ideal  draw  him  with  hooks  of  steel  to  make 
himself  perfect  with  God's  perfectness. 

"And  only  the  Master  shall  praise  us,  and  only  the  Mas- 
ter shall  blame ; 

And  no  one  shall  work  for  money,  and  no  one  shall  work 
for   fame ; 

But  each  for  the  joy  of  the  working,  and  each,  in  his 
separate  star, 

Shall  draw  the  Thing  as  he  sees  It,  for  the  God  of  Things 
as  They  are." 


XII 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS  THE  ABSO- 
LUTE RELIGION 


"  Our  Father  who  art  m  heaven." 

"  Go  ye,  and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,  baptizing 
them  into  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and 
of  the  Holy  Spirit:  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things 
whatsoever  I  commanded  you :  and  Lo,  I  am  with  you 
always,  even  unto  the  consummation  of  the  age." 

"Believe  me  that  I  am  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in 
me :  or  else  believe  me  for  the  very  works'  sake." 

"  I  have  given  you  an  example,  that  ye  also  should  do  as 
I  have  done  to  you.  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  A 
servant  is  not  greater  than  his  lord ;  neither  one  that  is 
sent  greater  than  he  that  sent  him.  If  ye  know  these  things, 
blessed  are  ye  if  ye  do  them." 


XII 


THE    RELIGION    OF   JESUS    THE   ABSO- 
LUTE RELIGION 

Obvious  as  the  supremacy  of  the  religion  of 
Jesus  may  be  for  some,  it  must  be  frankly  admitted 
that  it  is  not  so  obvious  to  all  men.  Outside  of 
the  church  not  only  but  within  its  communion  the 
question  is  being  asked,  can  Christianity's  claim 
to  be  the  absolute  religion  justify  itself  to  intelli- 
gence, in  plain  language,  is  Christianity  played 
out?  And  there  is  not  a  little  in  appearances 
which  makes  a  brief  for  pessimism.  There  is  the 
fact  that  after  nearly  two  thousand  years  certain 
non-Christian  faiths  have  a  larger  membership, 
and  their  collective  following  overwhelms  ours. 
Among  the  Western  people  where  its  influence  has 
been  greatest  controversy  has  beaten  upon  Chris- 
tianity, sectarian  discord  has  wounded  it,  govern- 
ments which  profess  to  be  its  defenders  tear  into 
tatters  its  elementary  principles,  and  men  and 
women  who  have  publicly  confessed  its  faith  dis- 
credit it  Avith  lives  which  mock  its  Master's  ideals. 

And,  as  if  this  were  not  enough  to  cast  sus- 
picion upon  the  finality  of  the  Christian  religion, 

195 


196  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

a  challenge  comes  from  the  Far  East.  Above  that 
horizon  has  risen  a  heathen  nation.  And  as  she 
stands  in  the  glory  of  her  youth  as  a  world-power, 
lo,  she  compares  favorably  with  and  rises  superior 
to  certain  so-called  Christian  nations  which  have 
from  time  to  time  aspired  to  conquer  her,  even  to 
convert  her.  The  extraordinary  development  of 
Japan  with  its  alien  faith  may  not  be  explained 
by  mere  intellectual  causes.  It  has  been  inspired 
by  an  unsurpassed  patriotism,  sustained  by  the 
noblest  self-sacrifice  and  glorified  by  a  humani- 
tarianism  which  almost  reaches  up  to  America's 
unprecedented  attitude  toward  Cuba  and  the 
Philippines.  Such  facts  make  even  Christians  ask 
if  after  all  their  religion  be  not  only  a  passing 
phase  of  civilization,  if  it  be  not  a  provisional 
though  a  Providential  revelation. 

This  is  the  question  which  the  disciple  must  an- 
swer, is  the  religion  of  Jesus  the  absolute  religion 
or  is  the  world  to  expect  a  new  religion?  For 
effective  service  there  is  need  not  only  of  arms  and 
men  but  the  force  must  be  vitalized  by  an  unques- 
tioning confidence  in  the  unique  ability  of  the  com- 
mander. Doubt  of.  the  general's  qualifications  cuts 
the  nerve  of  daring.  When  the  army  believes  that 
its  commanding  officer  is  not  only  brave  but  that 
he  is  the  only  man  who  can  lead  them  on  to  victory 
something  gets  done.     Faith  has  a  way  of  making 


THE  ABSOLUTE  RELIGION  197 

the  result  come  true.  Doubt  and  though  you  are 
right  you  do  not  dare.  UnquaHfied  commitment 
to  the  mind  of  Christ  as  the  ultimate  standard  and 
spiritual  dynamic  is  the  sole  condition  of  Christ- 
like character  and  efficient  evangelization.  If  they 
themselves  are  to  come  into  "  the  measure  of  the 
stature  of  His  fulness,"  if  they  are  to  win  the 
world  for  allegiance  to  their  Lord,  Christians  have 
got  to  believe  that  His  religion  is  the  one  absolute 
faith  for  mankind. 

They  must  believe  that  the  religion  of  Jesus  is 
absolute  as  opposed  to  provisional;  that  is,  that 
Christianity  is  not  a  phase  of  developing  civiliza- 
tion, a  faith  for  a  temporary  emergency  of  the 
race.  They  must  see  it  as  the  indispensable  re- 
ligion for  which  in  the  future  there  will  be  no 
substitute  as  there  has  been  none  in  the  past. 
Christians  must  believe  that  the  religion  of  Jesus 
is  absolute  as  opposed  to  provincial;  that  is,  that 
Christianity  is  not  a  racial  cult,  a  faith  for  a  certain 
type  of  mind  and  class  of  feeling.  They  must  see 
it  as  the  universal  religion  whose  field  has  no 
boundary  but  the  earth's  round  ring.  Christians 
must  believe  that  the  religion  of  Jesus  is  absolute 
as  opposed  to  partial;  that  is,  that  Christianity  is 
not  a  mere  forerunner  of  a  larger  religion,  a  faith 
only  for  beginners  in  spiritual  evolution.  They 
must  see  it  as  the  consummate  religion  having 


198  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

within  its  keeping  the  answer  to  the  ultimate  prob- 
lems of  the  inward  life,  the  promise  of  the  per- 
fecting of  mankind. 

Of  course  the  religion  which  aspires  to  this  ex- 
alted function  must  measure  up  to  certain  require- 
ments. The  faith  that  claims  to  be  absolute  must 
stand  a  fourfold  test.  First,  the  absolute  religion 
must  have  a  God,  for  the  race  is  "  incurably  re- 
ligious." No  mere  moral  code  nor  social  pro- 
gramme however  altruistic  can  become  an  absolute 
religion  if  it  is  godless.  In  its  center  it  must  en- 
throne an  Infinite  Power  and  Pity  to  whom  the 
human  heart  can  aspire  and  pray.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  prove  that  no  tribe  of  men  has  ever  been 
found  who  had  not  some  sense  of  a  relationship 
to  an  awful  Unseen.  It  is  necessary  only  to  know 
that  there  are  some  men  who  will  cry,  "  thou  hast 
made  us  for  Thyself  and  we  are  restless  till  we 
rest  in  Thee."  Given  one  human  soul  who  de- 
mands God  and  the  absolute  religion  must  supply 
the  goods.  And  this  God  of  the  absolute  religion 
must  be  an  Infinite  and  Eternal  Presence  who  may 
be  known  by  and  who  knows  every  last  child  of 
man,  a  Person  in  whom,  by  whom  and  through 
whom  are  all  things,  a  Being  the  secret  of  whose 
purpose  includes  every  living  soul.  The  absolute 
religion  must  have  a  God  for  all  men  to  love  and 
obey. 

Second,  the  absolute  religion  must  have  a  world- 


THE  ABSOLUTE  RELIGION  199 

wide  message,  founded  upon  the  conception  of  the 
infinite  value  of  the  individual.  For  in  the  erec- 
tion of  a  world-wide  ideal  the  unit  of  the  building 
is  not  the  state,  nor  a  class,  nor  even  the  family, 
but  the  individual,  the  man  without  distinction 
of  race,  color,  or  condition.  A  world-wide  ideal 
can  be  no  higher  than  its  estimate  of  a  single  soul. 
Any  social  programme  which  values  one  class  more 
than  another,  which  lifts  one  kind  of  men  at  the 
expense  of  the  rest,  which  depreciates  the  individ- 
ual however  conditioned  is  disqualified  from  being 
the  absolute  religion.  The  absolute  religion  must 
have  a  w^orld-wide  message  founded  upon  a  con- 
ception of  the  infinite  value  of  the  individual. 

Third,  the  absolute  religion  must  be  consistent 
with  reality,  it  must  be  founded  on  fact  which  may 
be  tested  by  the  plain  man's  test  of  truth.  It  must 
be  consistent  with  the  truth,  the  whole  truth  and 
nothing  but  the  truth.  Piety  without  intelligence 
is  fanatic  and  divisive.  Criticism  is  normal  and 
it  is  as  inevitable  as  the  sea.  Like  the  sea  its  tide 
will  search  the  outlines  of  creeds  as  the  tide  sub- 
merges the  sand  forts  of  children  playing  war  upon 
the  beach.  It  will  rise  against  and  at  last  close 
over  every  authority  which  is  not  rock-ribbed  and 
lifted  high  into  the  blinding  light  of  the  eternal 
sun.  Before  its  swelling  flood  only  that  remains 
intact  which  concurs  with  reality.  The  absolute 
religion  must  be  founded  on  fact. 


200  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

Fourth,  the  absolute  reHgion  must  have  an  un- 
sparing ethical  ideal.  In  a  word  faith  in  it  must 
make  the  best  men.  This,  as  we  have  seen,  is  the 
ultimate  test  of  any  religion.  Whatever  argument 
may  be  adduced  for  a  doctrine,  it  would  instantly 
lose  its  force  if  it  appeared  that  the  moral  result 
of  denying  that  doctrine  was  superior  to  that  which 
resulted  from  its  acceptance.  Unless  men  are  mor- 
ally better  for  their  faith,  they  will  not  long  be- 
lieve in  that  faith,  and  they  will  not  get  others  to 
repeat  its  creed.  Only  the  highest  character-mak- 
ing creed  can  survive.  The  race  will  eventually 
tire  of  appeasings  the  gods  and  begin  to  demand 
that  religionists  be  simply  good.  The  absolute  re- 
ligion must  have  an  unsparing  ethical  ideal. 

These  four  things  the  absolute  religion  must 
fulfil.  If  it  is  pregnable  in  any  one  of  these  four 
dimensions  it  will  be  forced  eventually  to  capitu- 
late. No  amount  of  strength  massed  on  three 
sides  will  save  it  from  the  invasion  of  ultimate 
oblivion  on  its  weak  side.  To  be  absolute  a  re- 
ligion must  be  four-square  to  every  wind  that 
blows.  At  the  bar  of  this  quadrilateral  at  least 
five  great  religions  stand  and  each  claims  to  be 
the  religion  for  mankind. 

Islam  is  one.  Its  definition  of  God  would  make 
little  change  in  the  definition  given  in  the  West- 
minster Shorter  Catechism.  But  the  violent  re- 
pulsion which  the  Western  heart  experiences  at 


THE  ABSOLUTE  RELIGION  20I 

the  mention  of  Mohammedanism  is  sufficient  to 
disquaHfy  Islam  as  a  universal  faith  were  it  not 
already  rendered  unfit  by  the  third  and  fourth  re- 
quirements for  an  absolute  religion.  The  absolute 
religion  must  be  consistent  with  reality,  but  Islam's 
Koran  is  a  tissue  of  absurdities.  The  absolute 
religion  must  have  an  unsparing  ethical  ideal,  but 
Islam  permits  polygamy,  and  its  only  salvation  is 
escape  from  future  punishment  by  the  appeasing 
of  a  supreme  despot. 

Hinduism  which  has  basked  for  centuries  in 
the  aromatic  airs  of  India  brings  its  devotees  a 
peace  which  passeth  understanding;  its  prayers 
Christians  might  repeat,  and  its  religious  experi- 
ences are  fervent  and  profound;  its  method  of 
contemplation  satisfies  a  deep  desire  and  need  of 
the  human  soul.  But  the  very  fact  that  with  a 
history  half  as  long  again  as  Christianity's  Hindu- 
ism has  failed  to  save  its  own  land  disables  it  as 
the  absolute  religion,  if  it  were  not  inherently  dis- 
qualified by  the  second  requirement  of  an  absolute 
religion.  The  absolute  religion  must  have  a 
world-wide  message  founded  on  a  conception  of 
the  infinite  value  of  the  individual,  but  Hinduism 
seeks  no  converts;  it  is  essentially  aristocratic;  its 
favored  initiates  leave  the  world  about  them  to 
wallow  in  brute  passion,  to  be  enslaved  by  caste 
and  to  wander  hopelessly  in  the  utter  darkness  of 
superstition. 


202  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

Buddhism,  the  eclectic  faith,  the  amorphous  re- 
ligion, the  sad  comfort  of  the  disillusioned,  whose 
end  is  extinction  and  whose  method  is  renuncia- 
tion, fosters  something  which  looks  like  the  Chris- 
tian grace  of  charity.  But  that  Japan  after  cen- 
turies of  Buddhism  is  proverbially  unchaste  is 
enough  to  rule  out  Buddhism  as  a  universal  faith, 
if  it  were  not  already  unfitted  by  the  same  standard 
as  Hinduism.  For  Buddhism  is  also  a  religion  for 
the  privileged,  with  no  valuation  of  the  individual. 

Confucianism,  the  religion  of  order,  makes  laws 
of  filial  reverence  which  put  to  shame  the  customs 
of  our  Western  peoples.  But  to  remember  that 
China  whose  religion  Confucianism  has  been  for 
centuries  before  Christ  must  in  these  latter  days 
repudiate  its  fundamental  principle  that  she  may 
permit  herself  to  progress  is  enough  to  disbar  Con- 
fucianism, were  it  not  already  thrown  out  of  court 
by  the  first  requirement  of  an  absolute  religion. 
The  absolute  religion  must  have  a  God  for  all 
men  to  love  and  obey,  but  Confucianism  is  essen- 
tially atheistic ;  its  indefinable  Supreme  has  no  place 
in  and  no  active  part  with  the  governance  of  the 
universe. 

But  what  of  Christianity?  And  first  we  must 
remind  ourselves  of  the  fact  that  Christianity  is 
not  modern  civilization.  Prof.  G.  W.  Knox  puts 
the  case  thus,  "  No  doubt  modern  civilization  owes 
much  to  our  religion,  but  it  is  not  a  Christian 


THE  ABSOLUTE  RELIGION  203 

civilization.  Many  of  its  elements  are  of  other 
origins  and  some  of  them  are  directly  antagonistic 
to  its  fundamental  principles.  The  proof  which 
takes  our  particular  form  of  modern  life  as  the 
fruit  of  the  teaching  of  Christ  at  once  claims  too 
much  and  too  little,  too  much  for  our  social  con- 
dition, and  too  little  for  the  Christian  ideal.  It 
were  indeed  the  greatest  evidence  against  Chris- 
tianity, could  our  civilization  be  claimed  as  its 
fruits,  precisely  as  China  is  the  gravest  indictment 
against  the  Confucian  system.  The  highest  claim 
of  our  faith  is  that  it  is  a  protest  still,  indignant 
and  uncompromising,  against  not  only  the  ex- 
crescences, but  against  much  of  the  essential  char- 
acter of  the  modern  world."  The  best  that  can 
be  said  for  civilization  is  that  it  is  being  Chris- 
tianized. Still  must  St.  Paul's  words  ring  round 
the  Western  world,  "  Thou  that  teachest  another, 
teachest  thou  not  thyself?  thou  that  preachest  a 
man  should  not  steal,  dost  thou  steal?  thou  that 
sayest  a  man  should  not  commit  adultery,  dost  thou 
commit  adultery?  thou  that  abhorrest  idols,  dost 
thou  rob  temples?  thou  that  gloriest  in  the  law, 
through  thy  transgression  of  the  law  dishonorest 
thou  God?  For  the  name  of  God  is  blasphemed 
among  the  Gentiles  because  of  you."  Civilization 
is  not  Christianity. 

We  must  remind  ourselves  too,  that  Christianity 
is  not  the  Church.     Among  the  sects  which  vainly 


204  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

boast  themselves  to  be  the  body  of  Christ  we  look 
in  vain  for  one  which  as  a  Church  consistently 
imposes  as  the  sole  test  of  membership  in  its  com- 
munion the  standard  set  up  by  the  Master  Him- 
self^— "Ye  are  my  friends  if  ye  do  the  things 
which  I  command  you."  In  this  connection  the 
writer  already  quoted  well  says,  "  Christian  love 
has  neither  been  a  condition  of  admission,  nor  has 
its  possession  in  a  high  degree  been  any  protection 
against  discipline  and  excommunication.  It  has  re- 
mained a  counsel  for  saints  otherwise  unobjection- 
able, and  an  attainment  to  be  reached  when  sanc- 
tification  is  complete  in  some  life  beyond  the 
world,  but  for  the  most  it  has  remained  a  thing 
apart,  and  many  who  hold  St.  Paul  verbally  in- 
spired have  uttered  indignant  remonstrance  when 
in  accordance  with  his  words  love  has  been  set 
forth  as  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world."  To  be  a 
Churchman  is  not  synonymous  with  being  a  Chris- 
tian, and  to  be  outside  the  Church  is  not  the  same 
as  being  unchristian.  Of  the  church  it  must  be 
said  as  we  have  said  of  civilization,  it  is  being 
Christianized.     The  Church  is  not  Christianity. 

What  then  is  Christianity?  The  answer  is  and 
must  always  be,  the  religion  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
the  beautiful  life  the  Lord  lived  illuminated  and 
interpreted  by  the  simple  words  He  spoke.  Here 
and  here  only  is  the  Christian  truth,  the  whole 


THE  ABSOLUTE  RELIGION  205 

truth  and  nothing  but  the  truth.  All  faiths  must 
come  to  judgment  here.  Back  to  Christ  is  the 
spirit  which  must  prevail,  for  it  cannot  for  one 
moment  be  maintained  that  Christians  have  suc- 
ceeded in  advancing  beyond  their  Master.  His 
life  and  His  idea  are  still  the  unattained  ideal. 

"  Our  little  systems  have  their  day ; 

They  have  their  day  and  cease  to  be : 
They  are  but  broken  lights  of  thee, 
And  thou,  O  Lord,  art  more  than  they." 

This  is  the  absolute  religion,  the  indispensable, 
universal,  consummate  faith,  the  faith  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

And  how  does  the  religion  of  Jesus  measure  up 
to  the  quadrilateral?  It  was  said  the  absolute 
religion  must  have  a  God  for  all  men  to  love  and 
obey.  Once  more  we  stand  under  the  Syrian  sky 
nineteen  hundred  years  ago.  Jesus  is  alone  with 
His  disciples;  Peter  and  Andrew  the  unlettered 
fishermen;  John  and  James  the  sons  of  the  ship- 
owner of  Bethsaida;  Matthew  the  former  Roman 
tax-collector;  Simon  the  one-time  fanatic  nation- 
alist; Philip  the  materialist;  Bartholomew  the  mys- 
tic; Judas  the  bigot;  Thomas  the  skeptic;  and 
Thaddeus  and  James.  They  stand  praying,  Jesus 
leads  them : — "  Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven." 
Jesus'  Father  and  John's,  Peter's  and  Matthew's, 
Philip's  and  Judas'.     Evidently  Christianity  has  a 


206  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

God,  a  God  for  all  kinds  of  men,  a  God  who  knows 
no  class,  caste,  nor  creed,  a  God  whom  every  son 
of  man  may  adore,  love  and  obey. 

It  was  said  that  the  absolute  religion  must  have 
a  world-wide  message  founded  upon  a  conception 
of  the  infinite  value  of  the  individual.  Once  more 
we  join  that  group  which  is  bowed  in  prayer,  in 
whose  faces  we  see  mirrored  the  world's  varying 
minds  and  feelings.  "  Our  Father,"  then  that 
word  "  our  "  knits  those  variegated  souls  into  one 
brotherhood,  bids  them  claim  relationship  to  Him, 
God's  best  Son,  and  to  all  the  world  full  of  God's 
dear  children.  *'  Go  ye,"  said  the  Christ,  "  and 
make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,  baptizing  them 
into  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and 
of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  teaching  them  to  observe  all 
things  whatsoever  I  commanded  you :  and  lo,  I  am 
with  you  always,  even  unto  the  consummation  of 
the  age."  Remember  His  story  of  the  prodigal 
son;  when  he  "  came  to  himself  he  said,  I  will  arise 
and  go  to  my  Father."  Was  there  ever  such  a 
valuation  of  the  real  self  of  a  man  whom  the  men 
about  him  thought  fit  only  to  be  a  swineherd? 
Obviously  the  religion  of  Jesus  has  a  world-wide 
message  and  it  is  founded  upon  a  conception  of 
the  infinite  value  of  the  individual. 

It  was  said  that  the  absolute  religion  must  be 
consistent  with  reality,  that  it  must  consent  to  be 
tested  by  the  plain  man's  test  of  truth.     In  the 


THE  ABSOLUTE  RELIGION  207 

beginnings  of  Jesus'  ministry  one  speaking  to 
another  said,  **  We  have  found  Him,  of  whom 
Moses  in  the  law,  and  the  prophets,  wrote,  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  the  son  of  Joseph."  He  to  whom  he 
spoke  doubted ;  "  Come  and  see,"  was  the  answer, 
and  going  and  seeing  the  doubter  identified  the  dis- 
covery and  claimed  and  was  claimed  by  the  Christ. 
On  the  eve  of  the  day  they  hanged  Him  on  the 
Cross,  the  Master  said  to  His  disciples,  "  Believe 
me  that  I  am  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  me : 
or  else  believe  me  for  the  very  works'  sake."  We 
know  the  answer  He  sent  to  the  bewildered  John 
Baptist;  He  submitted  to  be  tested  by  the  plain 
man's  test  of  truth.  And  for  nineteen  centuries 
His  religion  has  stood  the  test.  Historical  and 
literary  study  by  impartial  research  have  vindicated 
the  impregnable  validity  of  the  fundamental  facts 
of  His  life  as  recorded  for  us  in  the  Gospels. 
Criticism  has  tried  those  Gospels  by  its  hottest 
fires  and  as  one  of  the  critics  has  written,  "  Let 
the  plain  Bible-reader  continue  to  read  his  Gospels 
as  he  has  hitherto  read  them;  for  in  the  end  the 
critic  cannot  read  them  otherwise  What  the  one 
regards  as  their  true  gist  and  meaning,  the  other 
must  also  acknowledge  to  be  so."  Not  only  the 
higher  but  the  highest  criticism,  the  criticism  of  life 
has  proved  that  the  religion  of  Jesus  may  be  held, 
not  as  a  fragile  treasure  which  must  be  tenderly 
guarded  against  the  rude  attacks  of  unbelief,  but  as 


208  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

a  fortress  whose  foundations  are  imbedded  in  the 
eternal  rock  of  reaHty.  It  must  be  plain  that  the 
religion  of  Jesus  is  consistent  with  reality. 

It  was  said  the  absolute  religion  must  have  an 
unsparing  ethical  ideal.  Once  again  we  go  to 
Jesus  Himself.  What  O  Sovereign  Master  of  the 
soul  is  thine  ideal  for  the  individual  and  society? 
"  Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said,  Thou  shalt  love 
thy  neighbor,  and  hate  thine  enemy ;  but  I  say  unto 
you,  Love  your  enemies  and  pray  for  them  that 
persecute  you ;  that  ye  may  be  sons  of  your  Father 
who  is  in  heaven;  for  He  maketh  His  sun  to  rise 
on  the  evil  and  the  good,  and  sendeth  rain  on  the 
just  and  the  unjust.  For  if  ye  love  them  that  love 
you,  what  reward  have  ye?  do  not  even  the  pub- 
licans the  same?  And  if  ye  salute  your  brethren 
only,  what  do  ye  more  than  others  ?  Do  not  even 
the  Gentiles  the  same?  Ye  therefore  shall  be  per- 
fect, as  your  heavenly  Father  is  perfect."  Stand 
once  again  on  Calvary  where  they  have  hung  Him 
on  His  cross;  hear  Him  praying  for  those  who 
are  striking  the  nails  through  His  hands  and  feet ; 
remember  how  just  the  night  before  He  had  given 
this  word  to  His  followers,  "  I  have  given  you  an 
example,  that  ye  also  should  do  as  I  have  done  to 
you.  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  A  servant  is 
not  greater  than  his  lord;  neither  one  that  is  sent 
greater  than  he  that  sent  him.  If  ye  know  these 
things,  blessed  are  ye  if  ye  do  them."     What  is  the 


THE  ABSOLUTE  RELIGION  209 

ethical  ideal  of  Christianity?  Nothing  short  of 
Godlike  perfection,  nothing  less  than  the  redupli- 
cation of  the  Infinite  Love  of  the  awesome  Eternal. 
The  Ten  Commandments  are  left  far  under  foot, 
the  golden  rule  itself  is  surpassed,  this  religion's 
moral  law  sinks  into  the  divine  depths,  soars  away 
into  infinite  heights,  unsurpassed,  unsurpassable  in 
its  reach,  for  it  is  as  beautiful  as  the  life  of  the 
Father  of  Jesus  Christ.  Surely  the  religion  of 
Jesus  has  an  unsparing  ethical  ideal. 

Measured  by  the  tests  for  an  absolute  religion 
the  religion  of  Jesus  not  only  fulfils  but  overflows 
all  the  requirements.  Its  God  is  a  Father,  all 
men's  Father,  the  Father  who  claims  every  man, 
whom  every  man  may  claim ;  its  message  is  to  all 
men  without  distinction  because  every  man  is  of 
inestimable  value  to  the  Father;  its  fundamental 
record  and  its  sublime  Author  are  true,  verifiable 
by  the  criticism  of  experience;  its  ethical  ideal  is 
the  ultimate  perfection  of  the  spiritual  man  in  the 
likeness  of  his  heavenly  Father.  A  God  better 
than  Jesus'  is  inconceivable ;  a  higher  appraisement 
of  man  than  Jesus'  is  unimaginable ;  a  more  prac- 
tical authority  than  Jesus'  is  unthinkable;  a  more 
elevated  ideal  of  character  than  Jesus'  is  impossi- 
ble. Jesus'  religion  is  the  absolute  religion,  indis- 
pensable, universal,  consummate.  The  man  who 
will  face  the  facts  must  say  with  St.  Peter,  "  Lord, 
to  whom  shall  we  go?  thou  hast  the  words  of 


2IO  THE  MIND  OF  CHRIST 

eternal  life.     And  we  have  believed  and  know  that 
thou  art  the  Holy  One  of  God." 

"Ah  no,  thou  life  of  the  heart, 
Never  shalt  thou  depart! 
Not  till  the  leaven  of  God 
Shall  lighten  each  human  clod: 
Not  till  the  world  shall  climb 
To  thy  height  serene,  sublime, 
Shall  the  Christ  who  enters  our  door 
Pass  to  return  no  more." 


THE  END 


Date  Due 

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